The Violet of Royalty
by AnHeiressofaSOLDIER
Summary: After the Trial of Titan, the king and his guard are stranded in the Duscae area without a car. While there, Noctis sees Luna trying to make the Covenant with Ramuh for him. But she is attacked by a Giantoad and hit with a terrible affliction—an affliction that comes from another world. Something has happened to change the destiny of the Cosmogony book… and darkness is coming.
1. Chapter One: Contemplating Uneasiness

**Chapter One: Contemplating Uneasiness**

 **Noctis' PoV**

Noctis, Ignis, Prompto, and Gladio were all four sitting on the picnic table located at Wiz's Chocobo Outpost, trying to figure out what they should do now with a missing car, when Prompto noticed many of the birds getting up and at arms again.

"Uhh... You guys don't think there's another behemoth out there scaring the chocobos, do you?"

Noctis peaked one tired eye open, and frowned when he noticed some giant creature moving in the foliage across from them.

And it was for sure spooking the avians, alright.

"What is that thing that's blending in over there?" Noctis moaned, very much not wanting to move—he was too exhausted too—but ending up summoning one of his swords, anyway.

Ignis—who had been busy taking notes about what they were dining on—looked up and finally saw what Noctis was looking at:

"A giant toad or frog, perhaps? Noct, why do you-"

But Noctis held a hand up to silence his adviser, for he had just noticed something. (Meanwhile, Gladio just sighed.)

Noctis had seen a shock of white, seeming to get closer and closer to the aforementioned beast—as she held up a leaf for close examination, that must have fallen off a certain tree.

Was she trying to deduce just which one it had come from, and why it had fallen?

"Oh my gods- LUNA?! What are you _doing_ here? How on _Eos_ are you here? My-"

But Noctis' words were cut off, when the beast he'd just been considering leapt forward right into Luna.

And it sent her sprawling to the wooded ground beneath her so roughly, that Noctis was afraid she'd broken her back.

Luna was a fighter, though—and she called her trident to hand, and put it against the toad's neck as it tried to lick at her face, before giving up on that and giving a status ailment to her body.

As Luna began to turn green because of the effect, Noctis felt his feet moving of their own accord and a low growl building deep within his throat before erupting.

Oh, _hell_ no.

Noctis had been powerless enough in the past when it came to Luna—he remembered with a pit of dread in his stomach—and he sure as fuck wasn't letting the same thing happen again.

"Highness!" Noctis heard Ignis shouting after him, as he charged to Luna's aid.

But he couldn't be bothered to care about what Ignis had to say right now.

Instead, Noctis pulled off Armiger—each of the weapons coming to him painfully, as they always did: it felt like the power was pulling at different parts of his body at the same time to get it to work

But when Noctis held both of his arms out in front of him—right in the direction of the thing assaulting his beloved, that the weapons then crashed into—Noctis found he didn't mind a bit of a pull on his skin.

Not if it saved Luna.

The aforementioned woman sat up, gasping, and looked Noctis' way in shock.

And during that time, Noct heard Prompto shooting at the frog—though the bullets seemed to bounce off of its shell.

And Gladio was jumping into the air to hit it with even _more_ force, when it came to his great sword.

"We're not making a dent in this thing," Gladiolus told Noctis, just as the king had also jumped up—his weapons circling around him—as he held one Engine Blade in hand, and tried to find the chink in this abomination's armor.

"No," Luna sang—and it was literal music to Noct's ears—just as the tongue came for her again, though Ignis was able to starve it off by putting some fire against it. "If you don't do a lot of damage to it right away, it will heal. Let us lead it to Ramuh, and-"

"No, Luna. You're not going anywhere near the thunder god, and getting electrocuted that way, because this idiot frog decided to lick you and drench you to the bone."

There was evident shock on Luna's face, as she took in these words from Noctis.

And the king could tell she was hurt that the first words between them—after not having spoken for twelve years—was an argument.

Noctis was sorry for it, too—and he hung his head in shame for it—but he couldn't risk putting Luna in danger, either.

Perhaps to punish Noctis and Luna for taking the time to chat—and to also administer justice onto Gladio, Ignis, and Prompto for being stationary as they waited for their king's instructions—the fiend took that moment to leap onto Prompto's neck with all its force, and Noctis was honestly surprised it hadn't ruptured his friend's windpipe in that moment.

To Noctis, Luna seemed upset that Prompto had gotten hurt, when she'd been trying to do this on her own—and had even just given them a fool-proof plan, in her eyes—because in a total rage, she began spearing the thing with as much force as she could with her trident.

Finally, she got part of the Giantoad's shell to break off.

And Gladio, in seeing the opening, moved to attack it with one of his elemental blades.

Ignis fired at the sword before Gladiolus brought it down, thus increasing its effect.

Noct, feeling inspired, summoned some blizzard, as the toad hissed after being hit with metal and fire—because he wanted to solidify Gladio's weapon to their enemy if at all possible, that way it would keep getting hurt and die that way… if what Luna was saying about it was correct.

But it needn't go that far:

With the fire and blizzard both, the thing finally keeled over.

And the person who was there first, surprisingly enough, to dab at Prompto's bleeding neck was Wiz.

Noctis breathed heavily, wondering if the chocobo keeper was going to send them away, in thinking they invited too much trouble to these parts.

Noctis had never seen a creature like this in his life, after all, and he couldn't rid himself of the feeling that there was just something about him that all the Nasties responded to.

But thankfully… though Wiz did seem somewhat disappointed by the show, he picked Prompto up in his arms and began carrying him back to the Outpost—while he kept pressure on the blond's bleeding neck the whole time.

Luna brought up the rear, as the guys filed behind Prompto and Wiz, and Noctis could tell that she felt awkward.

He felt bad about that, and wanted to talk to her—boy did he! She was his girlfriend, and he hadn't even heard her voice in person for twelve years!—but right now he was too focused on his best friend.

Everything that had happened with Prompto just transpired so fast, and now he had an injury that Noctis hadn't even thought possible—because shouldn't his windpipe have been crushed, or his neck snapped in the worst-case scenario? Though Noctis hated to think it.

And even for the _best-case_ scenario, shouldn't there have just been bruising atop him instead of blood?

Noctis couldn't wrap his head around any of it—and for the most part, Ignis and Gladio also seemed unable to—so maybe it was for the best that Wiz was taking the initiative, then.

He set Prompto down on the counter, went back behind it, and fished out a hi-potion.

And then delicately, the man tipped Prompto's head back and helped him to drink it.

The concoction began to heal the injuries on Prompto's throat immediately—to which Noctis and his friends, and even Luna, breathed a sigh of relief—but when Prompto began speaking, it was clear his voice was still damaged. He seemed barely able to make his words audible at all.

And perhaps it was in hearing that that Wiz decided to be the Good Samaritan:

Slapping his hands together, he said in his gruff and friendly accent, "That potion ther's on the house. 'Least I can do, after y'alls defeated the behemoth for me and some of them other critters. Including the one yous just fought. Now, give this boy some bed rest and call it a day, won'chu?"

And it was in realizing that Prompto was doing much better now (he wasn't going to die, like Noctis had honestly thought he would for a moment there), that Noctis was able to return his attention to Luna—who had reached out to Prompto, with the idea of wiping some of his blood away it looked like.

"Luna..." Noctis muttered, turning to both Gladiolus and Ignis to try and discern if they were seeing what he was or not. "You still- you still have a green cast to you, after that fight. And you're still- you're still soaking wet, despite the fact we're under an awning and that it's stopped raining now."

If you had asked Noctis a few hours ago what his first words to Lunafreya face-to-face would have been, he would have laughed in your face if you had told him this.

And though Noctis _despised_ saying all of this now, he was primarily concerned for her safety and so that came first.

The _hell_ kind of monster had they just faced, that could hurt both Luna and Prompto so badly? Noctis wondered.

"It-it's fine, Noctis," Luna answered, as everyone began leading Prompto to the caravan—and actually ushering him in, so that the still dazed man would get the sleep he very much needed. "I don't even feel the cold or the wet."

 _That's not an excuse for you to suffer an affliction_ , Noctis wanted to tell his true love, his hands clenched into fists at his side as he wondered not for the first time what Niflheim had done to her to make her so nonchalant about her health.

"Should I go see about buying a remedy for her ladyship? It seems to me that she might have been poisoned during the battle, and a remedy will fix that right up."

Before Luna could protest, Noctis was already getting out some of the gil he kept in his hammerspace—that they used for emergencies—and handing it to Ignis with a grateful smile on her face.

Meanwhile, Gladio was shaking his head at the couple after Ignis left—to which Noctis shot him a glare—and saying, "You two just met again and are already acting like a bickering old married couple. That's really something.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go sharpen my sword. Oh, and it's really good to see you safe and well, Lady Lunafreya," Gladio said while bowing at the last part.

The moment he was gone, Noctis found himself reaching out with both hands and putting them on either side of Luna's face before he could stop himself.

"Sorry," Noctis tried to explain himself, just as Luna turned pink and chided him slightly (though she still moved one of her hands to put atop his own, he noticed). "It's just... I heard you were in Insomnia—instead of in Altissia, like you were supposed to be—when things went down-

"Anyway, I guess I needed to confirm to myself that you're alive and well. But what are you doing here, Luna?! Not that I'm not glad to see you, of course!" Noctis added the last part in hastily, with a wave of his hands, lest she get the wrong idea.

Without giving a real answer yet, the beautiful blonde woman leaned her forehead against Noctis'—just as Ignis began coming back with the medicine and it began sprinkling again.

Noctis thought his heart might beat out of its chest, when her lips nearly whispered against his, "Oh, Noctis. I'm so sorry about the fall of your old life, and what talking about it must do to you. But I'm afraid we must talk about it still… eventually.

"But to answer your question, I am here to begin the Covenant with Ramuh for you. I never dreamed that you'd get here when I did that, however. And now... now if you think it's too dangerous for me to do Ramuh at the moment, perhaps I should move onto Leviathan."

 _But if you're still somehow like this, then... won't Leviathan have a better chance of freezing you, like Ramuh now does of electrocuting you?_ (1)

"I got a Super Remedy, Highness," Ignis explained, as he handed the bottle to Lunafreya and talked to both Noctis and her in turn—something that Noctis was grateful for, that his Right Hand was giving Luna the attention that she was due.

"Lady Lunafreya seems to have been afflicted with this green glow for some time now... And yet it hasn't zapped her health yet at all. I worry that this is a far more potent poison that contaminates the bloodstream that the eye cannot see. Best to go against it with everything we've got, then, and try to knock it out right away."

Luna nodded at Ignis with a grin on her face, and thanked him—and told him he was just as great as Noctis had always said he was (Noctis scratched the back of his neck awkwardly at this, and looked decidedly away).

But then the moment of truth came: Luna went for her cure just as Prompto had, but... unfortunately, nothing ended up working for her.

Noctis cursed.

Ignis shared a concerned look with Noctis—and Noctis assumed that he looked very angry as he looked back at Ignis—and then he turned his attention to Luna.

But Luna was already cutting him off, and assuring him that all was well.

"I promise you both that I don't sense anything wrong with myself, even using my Oracle powers. Perhaps this is just some simple dye, and nothing else. If not... If not I will go to Shiva for our next task. As she has always been close with my family, she will tell me if anything is amiss."

"Shiva?" Gladio echoed, as he came back and joined the group—skirting around what looked to be an arguing couple to do so.

Noct was glad for his bodyguard's return, because he desperately needed someone to shake some sense into Luna about going after the gods in her current condition.

Granted, Noctis doubted that Shiva would hurt them if they came for a Covenant—for the reasons that Luna herself had just given—but...

"Yes," Luna affirmed, as she turned to Gladio with a hand offered, but seemed to think better of it when she saw the green mist still coating her arm. "She- she was killed some time ago, and my hand maiden, Gentiana, volunteered to become Shiva's new host, so she might live on.

"I only recently found this out, however. So finding Genti—err, Shiva—may take some time. I'm afraid she's avoiding me, in thinking I might be upset in having lost Gentiana through her."

Noctis wanted to deny Luna this.

It seemed much too dangerous, because as far as he was concerned... Luna was denying her condition far too much.

But then he saw the look in her eyes—that seemed to say she wanted to do _something_ to try and combat the Empire after the fall of Lucis—and he agreed for that reason.

She was just like him, wasn't she?

And maybe... maybe he was just being overprotective, and Luna suddenly being a green goblin—though a cute one, at that—meant nothing.

It sounded like there'd be time before they found the Glacian, too... So hopefully that meant she'd be better by the time they found the woman, or otherwise he could talk her out of it beforehand…

"Sounds good," Noctis told Luna, as he gave her a thumbs-up—trying to act cool around her, but only too late realizing how dorky he was actually being.

Ignis nodded at the words. Already calculating what to do next, Noctis guessed… And paying no attention at all, to the fact his king was making a fool out of himself.

Gladio, however, just shook his head and sighed, whilst Luna giggled.

Score negative-one for Noctis, then.

...

Surprisingly, it wasn't until later that night that Noctis and Luna really ended up interacting with each other.

Everyone had just been so focused on trying to help Prompto…

Noctis' best friend had wanted Jell-O like nothing else in the world after he had awoken, to try and salvage his throat some.

Ignis had been against this idea, though—in saying that what Prompto really needed was a licorice root drink, that he himself would prepare for him.

Prompto had agreed to drink it... but only if he had Jell-O to go along with it, too.

So Ignis had stayed behind to make said beverage for Prompto, and to keep an eye on him, but Gladio, Luna, and Noctis had gone to Corenix Station to try and find some banana gelatin specifically.

It had been no easy task, though.

As it turned out, nowhere in Lucis was selling that stuff—because they now deemed the color of it to be too close to Niflheim's signature one, and all of Lucis hated the Empire with a passion.

It wasn't until Luna asked if maybe they had some in the back—from before the fall of Insomnia, that was maybe slightly expired—that they found a saving grace.

Product in hand, the trio had returned to Prompto and Ignis—and Prompto looked green for what Ignis had forced him to ingest—and Ignis then got busy at the Crow's Nest making the stuff.

Some hours later, Prompto had finally gotten to down the kiddy dessert and was a happy camper—with a much stronger voice again—before going out like a light.

"You have some nice friends," Luna now told Noctis, as the two of them walked towards the Crow's Nest with the dishes they needed to return in hand.

Ignis was tired after babysitting Prompto all day—so Noctis and Luna hadn't wanted to make him do it—and Gladio had been complaining about a cramp in his hand after driving them to Corenix earlier, so the couple had just decided to walk back and do the errand themselves.

...And they walked because Noctis didn't want to scare Luna away with his driving just yet.

"Yeah, we have some good times together," Noctis agreed, as the two of them finally made it onto the gray pavement.

Scratching his cheek somewhat awkwardly now, Noctis found himself asking Luna something he had meant to all day:

"But speaking of 'good times', what about the ones we've had through our notebook? How much of what I saw there was the impressive Lunafreya Nox Fleuret? Did the messages give your full character, or did it barely scratch the surface?

"I- I assumed things about you from it… Like how you always talked about hypocrisy with heavy handwriting? Does that mean it's one of your pet peeves? Or-"

Thankfully, Luna cut Noctis off before he could dig a deeper hole for himself—as she put a delicate hand onto his shoulder and he blushed.

"Yes," Luna said with a laugh, as she stood on her tiptoes to see him better. "I'm very much the girl from the journal: with my love for stickers, hate for hypocrisy, and desire for scented paper and all. Now I should ask if it's the same for you."

The two of them were going into the Crow's Nest now—and it took all the strength Noctis had within himself not to stop at Justice Monster's Five—and as they handed the employee back their bowl, Noctis felt the need to tease Luna some.

"Oh, yeah," he said—as he bowed to the kind person trying to make a living by taking orders, who he only had the utmost respect for. "I love stickers, hate hypocrisy, and desire scented paper to add to the album, too."

Luna huffed and stamped her foot once, as the two of them began heading outside again. But Noctis could tell it was a playful kind, and that she wasn't really mad at him.

Seeing Luna like this... it felt good.

"Noctis, what did I just say about hypocrisy? I gave you a real answer, now you give me one!"

"Okay, okay. There isn't much more to me that you don't already know, either. I've fallen in love with Sweet and Sour sauce, like I told you I had before you left Tenebrae… I think brown is the worst color ever, because it just makes me think about camping—that I really don't like to do. And I desire to make nap time a National event that takes place everyday, when I'm king. But you already knew all of this, so you know me well, Luna."

Luna seemed like she was about to reply to that, as she leaned ever closer to Noctis-or was it just in his head?—but before Noctis could consider it any further, he heard a loud gurgling sound and then saw a massive fist coming up and out of the ground.

Luna jumped, ever so slightly.

And just like that, Noct was grabbing onto her hand and running off with her to the nearby caravan, so they'd be safe there.

While they were inside, the two waited with bated breath for a while—not completely convinced that the Iron Giant still couldn't get close enough to crush their sanctuary from the outside.

Luna, to try and calm herself down some, ended up microwaving some water to drink.

While she was doing that, Noctis had finally relaxed enough to pretend to be asleep on the floor:

He didn't want to have a conversation about bed arrangements with Luna when they were still trying to figure their relationship out, after all. And he certainly didn't want Luna to sleep on the carpet filled with grime...

He heard her footsteps pause when she got back into the same room as he was in and saw him "sleeping".

After the humming she'd been doing stopped, Noctis even had the benefit of feeling Luna's lips brush against his cheek and a blanket dropped over him, before he heard the bed squeak and saw the light go out through his eyelids.

"Goodnight, my sweet prince."

And Noctis finally drifted off to sleep with a twitch to his mouth.

…

The next day, Noctis noticed that Luna was already gone. And at first he began to panic, but he found her right outside the trailer pretty soon...

And he could tell by the look on her face, that she had left first so he wouldn't have to feel like the stereotypical crummy guy leaving a girl after sex.

…Not that anything had even happened between them. Not even close.

And truthfully... Noctis was glad for that, because he'd never been sure if Luna was in love with him or not. And until he had that all sorted out, he sure as hell wasn't even going to think about jumping into bed with her.

So really, Noctis was glad that Luna had tried to spare his feelings, but he also felt kind of bad for it, too.

He decided to pretend he hadn't figured out her motives, and just walked up to her with a beaming face.

"Sorry I slept so late, Luna—err… I assume I did, anyway—but are you ready to head back to the Chocobo Outpost? The guys must be wondering where we are."

Luna nodded, and without a word she adorably held out a muffin towards Noctis.

"What's this?" the prince asked, removing the pastry from the wrapper and taking a bite from it before he could stop himself.

It tasted delicious—maybe because they hadn't been able to eat much lately?—and Noctis resisted the urge to moan as it filled up his empty stomach.

"The Crow's Nest gave us a box of them for free. Apparently our exploits yesterday convinced the employees to give this flavor another go. And now they think it's going to be a great hit. To thank us for the inspiration, they made us these."

"Sweet," Noctis whistled gleefully, as he rubbed his hands together. "Maybe this way Ignis and Gladio will be less likely to maim me for making them worry."

Since he had been trying to be funny, Noctis had expected Luna to tell him that "the way to a man's heart _was_ through his stomach", or maybe to complain about the pun he'd used, but she didn't.

Instead, she took his hand in hers—which made Noctis blush, though he tried to hide it—and began leading him back the way they came.

They walked close to camp spots when they could, but tiptoed around the monsters that surrounded them otherwise.

Noctis didn't want Luna to get hurt if he started a battle he couldn't handle, after all.

And surprisingly, this tired Noctis out more than anything—because it meant they were pretty much creating a maze for themselves to get through—and so he was astonished when Luna began talking to him with absolutely no strain in her own voice: Noctis knew that he would have been completely out of breath if he tried to speak now.

"Noctis, I need to- I need to tell you what happened in Insomnia," came Luna's sudden guilt-filled voice.

Noctis raised an eyebrow at that, as the two of them made their way up the slight incline to where wards were.

And he almost wanted to ask Luna not to tell him about it—he didn't want to know the gory details, did he?—but Noctis' tenor came out weak and quiet (not unlike how Prompto's had been earlier), and Luna continued on without ever hearing his protest.

"This will be- this will be difficult for you to hear, I'm sure—and I'm so very sorry for that, and that I have to deliver this news at all—but I think you need to know this:

"…It was a man named, Drautos, I believe: A man that was in your father's employment. He was a double agent—he was General Glauca in disguise: the very same one who killed my mother. And he- he murdered your father. Noctis, I can't give you enough condolences for that. I-"

Noctis fell to the ground.

And somewhere—in the part of his mind that wasn't currently drowning—he found himself thinking that he wasn't being dignified at all in front of the girl he was hoping to woo, but he honestly couldn't care right now.

Noctis' last words to his father swirled around in his head—he acknowledged that he'd left his dad in Drauto's hands and remembered how nonchalant and inconsiderate he'd been about his father in their last moments together.

Noctis' eyes turned into slits, and he clenched his fists as he began breathing raggedly.

The king was about to tell Luna that he needed to find Drautos, so he could kill him—gods, he needed to see the light leave his eyes as he cut him down—but Luna cut off Noctis' murderous tendencies.

"It wasn't… one-hundred-percent bad. There was a man, Nyx Ulric, and he saved me and helped me get away with the Ring... He- he fought for Insomnia like an avenging angel—and was even temporarily granted power by your ancestors—and he- I'm almost certain he avenged your father's death. So you don't have to worry about that anymore, Noctis.

"Nyx- I didn't know him very long, but he was my friend. I think- I think you would've liked that Glaive."

During Luna's long speech, Noctis had felt his heart begin to mend ever so slightly—as she unwittingly gave him the exact news he had needed to hear–but she had seemed to break her own into pieces in the process.

Standing up, and wrapping his arms around her—as she mourned the loss of one of the few friends she'd ever been able to have, because of the fucking Nifs—Noctis dropped a lingering kiss to the crown of his beloved's head.

"I'm sorry, Luna. I'm thankful for what Nyx did, more than you can ever know, but I'm sorry he had to lose his life and that you had to lose your friend. My ancestors can be a bunch of pricks, and I can give them an earful for it if you want me to."

At that, Luna snickered—though there was some humorlessness to it—and she once again tangled their fingers together.

"Thank you, Noctis. Just thank you. And I don't know if this will help you or not, but... I was with King Regis in his last moments. He didn't have to die alone.

He- he saved me. 'Locked doors will seal your fate no longer', he said... And something else, that I'll tell you about later. I just wish that _I_ could've protected him."

After that particular news, Noctis found that he couldn't help but to cry a bit—and Luna did the same alongside him—but it didn't last very long.

And when it was over, Noctis found that they both seemed to be feeling a bit better about everything now.

He placed one more kiss on Luna's head—that she even leaned into—and then they began their trek again, and made it back to where the chocobos were stationed with no more incidents.

…

When the couple reached their companions—grass steins on all of the boys' knees, to hint that Wiz had perhaps made them leave the RV—Noctis could tell that Ignis was about to chew them out, but when he saw the sad look on both of their faces he then became worried and held his tongue.

Luna held out the box of muffins she'd been carrying at her left side, and encouraged Gladiolus, Ignis, and Prompto to eat some of them.

Gladio said that he'd eat one, but only if Luna agreed to share with some of the children about them; and so the Lady happily obliged.

"She still look green and wet to you, too?" Prompto asked, when the blonde was out of earshot and Noct felt his best friend put an elbow on his shoulder.

Noctis bit his lip at this question.

He _had_ noticed it, but he'd begun to think Luna's illness had gone away—and that he'd just imagined that it was still there, in being too conscious of her.

Apparently, that was not the case—and Noctis tried to deduce why no one at the Crow's Nest had seemed to notice anything off about her...

Before Noctis could give this any more thought, however, he noticed that his fiancée was suddenly hugging Prompto—and telling him that she now realized it was _he_ who had saved Pryna, and that she couldn't thank him enough for it.

"Speaking of which, where are Pryna and Umbra?" Noctis started, but Ignis was already interrupting him.

"Noct... I truly don't want to sound like a chaperone, because Lady Lunafreya is your betrothed. And if you want to try and make up for lost times now, that's completely within you two's rights...

"But what happened last night? Did you receive some bad news? When you returned to camp just now, your faces were-"

Realizing that this was not a conversation they should've been having near the new people who had just rented a bed at Wiz's, Noct motioned for all of his friends to follow him to one of the pale towers, just behind the lot.

And once Luna threw her empty box away and joined them, Noctis filled everyone in with: "Luna, she- she told me about what happened in Insomnia. It's not a pretty story, and I'd rather not talk about it right now... Though I promise I will eventually. You guys deserve to know what happened just as much as I did. Especially you, Gladio. We didn't talk about Clarus enough during Titan's Trial, I mean. Not nearly enough."

"Speaking of my family..." Gladio spoke up then, seeming inspired but also troubled. "I'm having a hard time getting in touch with Iris. I know it probably shouldn't be... but it's frightening me. Mind if we stop by Lestallum to check on her?"

Noctis was mouthing the word "yes" before Gladio had even finished his question:

He knew just how upset Luna would be if he didn't aid "the charming girl"—as Luna had described her knowledge about Iris as once.

And furthermore, Iris was family to Noct.

Ignis gasped at this turn of events—his eyes completely downcast as he did so—and not for the first time, Noctis found himself wondering if Ignis was in love with Iris…

"O-of course we should look into this," Prompto was saying now-a chocobo feather held between his fingers that he was using to calm himself, maybe. "But I- I thought we were trying to get Summons for Noct. Or failing that: the Royal Arms. I even thought one of those musty old places would dry Lady Lunafreya right up, but-"

"But it's a no-go for you all, anyway. If you'r' lookin' to go where Ramuh's usually at, you'll need a chocobo to climb that steep hill. But if ya expect your bird ta help you out right now... I'm afraid ya might be out of luck. It looks like there's another behemoth roaming these parts, you see."

Noctis said a particularly strong word at this, that he had been raised not to say in the presence of a lady, and Prompto followed that up by saying to the eaves dropping Wiz just behind them, "And let me guess: it just happens to be much more powerful than the last one we fought, because that's just our luck, right?!"

And when the chocobo keeper pretty much concurred, though he declared that no one could _really_ know for sure, Ignis pushed his glasses closer to his eyes and sighed.

Gladio, on the other hand, was looking like he could kick a puppy.

And if Iris really was in danger, then Noct thought he might be able to do the same thing, too.

"Let's defeat it," Luna piped up, picking up some flowers and placing them on her arms—Noctis idly wondered if she was cold, and thought about giving her his jacket, before deciding that leather would just make her chillier. "It's the right thing to do."

"Except it won't be that easy. If my eyes aren't playing tricks on me, the behemoth is close to the catoblepas now. And since Noctis and I pissed one off the last time we were here really badly, I don't fancy going around them while fighting a behemoth!"

But it was clear to Noctis they were going to have to do exactly as Prompto had just said: They just couldn't get around without chocobos now. And so that left them with only one option, didn't it?

So gritting his teeth, Noctis decided to give his friends a kingly order, and he waved with one hand for them to follow him.

The brunet could tell that Ignis wanted them to stay slow and quiet to try and sneak up on the things (like Wiz so successfully had snuck up on them just now), but half-crazed, Noctis decided to run in noisily with guns blazing.

And to keep up with him and protect him, Prompto, Gladio, Ignis, and Luna were also there with immediacy.

The behemoth stood up on its hind legs—and had it pounded its chest, or had Noctis just imagined that? He was pretty sure that he was just seeing things now—and it roared.

The catoblepas, Noctis noticed—as he began wielding daggers and started warp-striking—were also getting agitated and beginning to shift over to where the gang was now located.

"We're going to die we're going to die we're going to die!" Prompto sang, as he covered his eyes with one hand and shot at the behemoth's back with another.

"No, you are not," Luna disagreed, with a faith that almost made Noctis want to believe. "If you can win here, I can tide the catoblepas over for you. They're vegetarians... so I assume they want a healthy lifestyle. I'm going to distract them with that, and heal them so that they are even _moreso_ in tip-top form."

And Luna leapt onto a damp rock—making her dress appear even _more_ liquefied somehow—and began attempting to do just that.

Noctis, however, was completely zoned on teleporting to the behemoth king's neck over and over again.

And as he became more and more exhausted as he did it, howling as he did so, Noctis began to fret that he'd end up stuck in the ether.

Warping... was an interesting thing: Since you were often times going through materials to do it, it felt a bit like walking through a spider web. And the more times you did it, the more likely it was that you'd get stuck in "it".

Noctis hissed—as he began getting tired, and thought for a second he might not be able to completely phase through the rock he had just landed in to try and end up on the ground.

Thankfully, he did.

"Highness, enough with that?" Ignis suggested in a tone that suggested he thought he was cautioning a toddler from something. "Even crashing into Deadeye's evil twin here that fast, and with that much force, will amount to little—with you only having daggers in hand. Try using magic. That will wear you out less."

And without a word, Noctis handed Ignis a fire spell. His hands were much too tired to manage the magic himself right now, but he trusted Iggy to do it.

Ignis then began dropping fireballs all around the behemoth—so that he became relatively caged in—but each time he placed one down, Ignis also did a cartwheel into the ring and slashed at the beast's face once.

He was disorienting it this way.

But the behemoth king—snarling and scratching at the ground, with a raised back now—was able to shoot a paw out and slam it into Gladio's stomach, sending him flying.

"GLADIO!?" Prompto demanded, as a tear fell down Noctis' own face.

Oh gods... was Gladiolus-

Noctis saw some light beside him now—and for a moment he thought that his prayers were answered, and that Luna was healing Gladiolus—but instead she seemed to be trying to get all the catoblepas that were reaching out for her to stop.

And now Prompto was at Gladio's side, fishing out an elixir as he rambled on and on and on.

And both Noctis and Ignis shakily waited, not even caring about themselves anymore.

"Man, what did I tell you about using something too much like a chainsaw? It sounded like it had to wind up every time you used it—even though it really doesn't at all—and I _knew_ that one day it would be too heavy and slow you down too much. You at least should've waited on this strike, until I'd tried to segue the behemoth's attention with a rain of bullets like I do with daemons. Umm..."

Gladio somewhat got up then, smacked Prompto on the head to get him to shut up, and started to drink the elixir.

But it was still clear that he was _far_ from being okay.

Noctis was just about to lose hope, when he saw the catoblepas grab onto Luna's dress and try to pull her under the water in their attempt to play with her...

Would he lose his shield and his true love both?

It was too painful a thought to bear.

But just then, Noctis heard a certain "kweh" that he had begun to love.

Spinning around, Noct noticed his chocobo had come to investigate what was going on, and Ignis' entire face lit up at the display.

"Noct!" his accented voice said with great urgency. "Those birds have healing powers! Try to get him over here, so that he can heal Gladio. We don't have enough items to manage it ourselves, and time is of the essence!"

And so Noctis did exactly that—undoubtedly looking like a fool as he tried to fold his shirt into chocobo feather shapes, to try and get its attention as Ignis did the same.

Miraculously, the giant blue chicken wandered over and did exactly what the men had needed him to!

And even more than that, he began trying to pick up the behemoth to try and drop it from a great height to kill it that way!

The monster was too heavy for the bird, but instantaneously both Noctis and Ignis realized they could burn some of its excess fat away.

And so very carefully, they began firing projectiles at it—Prompto hushing the chocobo the whole time, with placating hands and comforting words.

Gladiolus, now healed through the fine-feathered friend, was able to stab at the brutal animal's abdomen like he had meant to all along.

And now the chocobo was able to do the job that it desperately wanted to: it picked the behemoth up with its claws, flew into the air, and discarded it.

Noctis breathed a sigh of relief when he noted the light leave the behemoth king's eyes—as he didn't know if they would've been able to handle it without his trusty steed, things had been going so dicey—and he hurriedly turned his attention back to Luna.

It looked as though she had gotten the catoblepas to pretty much hold hands and sing "Kumbaya"—and to even let fish flop onto their back for a moment, before they jumped back into the depths—and Noctis had no idea how she had managed any of it.

It was a Luna mystery.

And seeming to read Noctis' mind, Luna towards him and hunched over some before saying, "Don't even ask. As far as I'm concerned, I subconsciously—somehow—created balls of light in the shape of their favorite food. And so they flocked to it to embrace it merrily, and are now trying to figure out where it 'melted' into the water.

"Anyway, let's go back to Wiz's, already, and see if the chocobos will let us ride them now. I also need to buy a new dress, it would seem."

Noctis flushed, as he noticed that Luna's dress had been ripped up towards one of her more intimate areas, and he decidedly looked away.

He knew that in books he'd read and shows that he'd watched, a boy, in this situation, probably would've made certain his friends weren't looking at his fiancée.

And maybe said boy even would've even threatened them for good measure, to make sure that they wouldn't.

But Noctis trusted his brothers more than anyone or anything in the world, so he began leading them back to their temporary sanctuary without a word—Zidaneschocobo, what he had named his feathery best friend—keeping step with him, and nudging up against hid side as he did so.

"Luna," Noctis asked, the moment the party had made it back to where that one woman was selling her gysahl greens. "Do you think the chocobo can maybe try to heal you, the way that he just did Gladio? I mean-"

"It won't work, Noctis. Just trust me; it won't. And neither will me trying to heal myself, either. That's not a gift that the gods gave me. I do have a theory as to what's going on, but I- I'm afraid I can't speak of it just yet."

 _And apparently you can't give me the Ring yet, either_ , Noctis thought, suspicions beginning to grow in his mind.

"With all due respect… the hell is that, Lady Lunafreya?" Gladio asked from behind Luna, as he forced her to turn around and face him.

Noctis might've objected to this—and he could tell that Prompto and Ignis both were; Prompto gasped, and Ignis gave Noctis a look as if to say, "Don't let Gladio harm your lovely fiancée, even by accident."—but Noct found that he was getting annoyed at Luna's blasé attitude about her health, too. And if this was the only way to get her to take it seriously, then so be it.

And besides, Noctis could tell that Gladiolus had just startled Luna more than anything else.

If he actually had harmed her, even by accident, the king knew he would've stepped in without a second thought.

"I probably would've died just a moment ago, if it hadn't been for the kid's bird stepping in to save the day. And if you hadn't taken care of the catoblepas—which I do thank you for, more than you know, my lady…

"But all that being said, I just got a little too close to death, and so now understand why one should never really want to die. So why does it seem like to me _that's exactly_ what you want? Especially if the chocobo _can_ actually help you."

"I'm going to- I'm going to go see if the shop clerk here has any fabric to add onto Lady Lunafreya's dress with. I'll be right back," Prompto said, as he exited the scene without a trace:

It was clear to Noctis that he didn't want to be a part of this conflict.

But Noctis barely even noticed Prompto's absence; he just needed to hear Luna's answer—and Ignis seemed to feel the same. (…Though he did seem to want to slam the purple material that Prompto was now making a scene with, just behind them.)

Why did it feel like Luna was now closer to him—the closest she had been in twelve years, in fact—but also so far? Noctis tried to figure out, with little to no success.

Sighing, after pinching the bridge of her nose and looking at her sandals once, Luna gave what sounded like an honest answer:

"The gods have begun speaking to me of a certain usurper… They have not given me all of the full details yet, but it seems that this person is truly responsible for whatever has happened to me. They sent that creature that licked me, that is so much like one of our own creatures here on Eos… but also so different. And it seems- it seems that what it did cannot be undone. At least not easily. And that is because it came from another world."

"Another world?!" Noctis bellowed, as he nearly fell backwards and fainted in his shock. This was _not_ something that you heard everyday.

And if this was something his dad had known about—but had neglected to tell him, even in his king training sessions—then Noctis thought he was probably going to bring his old man back just to kill him again.

"Luna, explain- I know the Starscourge seems to be from outer space? …If I've read the Cosmogony book correctly, that is, and I'm not saying that I have… So is _that_ what you're talking about, or something else entirel-"

"Noctis, don't pester the lady," Ignis ordered—stepping in and putting a hand on the king's side, as he motioned for Gladio to go and help Prompto try and make the purple rayon into pants. "I do not think Lady Lunafreya knows any more about this than you do. I also don't think this was something that was meant to happen: the Cosmogony book has no record of anything like this needing to occur. Someone is clearly meddling here.

"But even more important than all that, I find that you and Gladio should apologize to Lady Lunafreya at once. It must not be an easy burden that she bears, in learning she now carries an illness that cannot be cured on this earth."

And as if hearing just what Ignis had had to say, even from somewhat afar, Gladio stole a pair of scissors from Wiz's wares and began helping Prompto even moreso with the "new outfit for Luna" project—as if trying to make it all up to her that way.

Noctis just looked at Luna with his head hung low—his eyes turning a much more warmer blue than usual as he did so. "Luna, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have jumped on you like that. There's no excuse. With something like this eating away at you, it only makes sense that you would want to disassociate. And I should've let you. I-"

Suddenly, Noctis felt warmth all about him again—maybe a kind he truly hadn't experienced since he'd lost his mother, though he couldn't say that for a fact. But it was for sure a kind of thing he'd _never_ encountered as a functioning adult until Luna had embraced him exactly like this yesterday, and had leaned her forehead against his… just as she was doing now.

"Actually, believe it or not, Noctis… I don't want to disassociate at all. I had to do that enough when I was in Tenebrae. I, at least physically, was forced to disentangle myself from your presence for _years_. And now that I'm finally here with you again, that's the last thing I want to do. So if you ever see me even remotely pulling away, please stop me."

"Luna…"

Not being able to stop himself at her confession, Noctis leaned in and placed a gentle peck to Luna's lips.

That was all he did, because he still wasn't entirely sure how she felt—and everyone hated public displays of affection, right? So he didn't want to make Luna uncomfortable or unnerve his friends—but doing this slight thing was still something he hadn't been able to resist.

Blessedly, Luna seemed to be smiling ear-to-ear when Noctis pulled away from her (which had the unfortunate effect of making him break out into hives, that he desperately tried to hide).

And after they both heard the throat clearing from Ignis, they returned their attention to where new clothes were being made for Luna.

And Prompto, Gladio, Luna, and Noctis all tried to help Ignis with that as best they could…

Though in the end, Ignis still ended up doing most of the work. And Noctis promised himself that when all this was over, that man was getting a serious raise.

…

On the Wednesday of that week, Luna had something new to wear under her destroyed dress, and everyone began mounting up on chocobos—so that they could finally head towards Lestallum.

"I have to say that you look good that way, Lady Lunafreya. Maybe you should even rock something like a pants-suit from now on… And if that's the case, and you do want to do that, I'm sorry for sort of messing that up in giving you a sort of half-skirt with these trousers. Ehehe. But in my defense, it wasn't until Gladio came over last night that I realized you would, of course, need pants for riding chocobos. Until then, I thought we were just making you a new skirt, and-"

Coming up behind Prompto on the blue bird that Noctis now couldn't get enough of (seriously. In having nightmares of what might have happened to Gladio if Zidaneschocobo hadn't showed up in the nick of time, Noctis thought he might now be willing to sell all the copies of King's Knight in the world, to try and figure out how to give this chocobo here immortality), he slapped his best friend upside the head to halt his word vomit.

Ugh. Prompto was just embarrassing himself, Noctis thought… but at least it was amusing Luna.

"Hey!" Prompto protested, as he rubbed the offended area on the back of his head. "That hurt."

"And you should be thanking me for that, Prom. Don't be so bizarre in front of Luna. And you _can_ call her just that, y'know."

Prompto seemed to consider the idea for a moment, and then nearly jumped out of his seat on his chocobo when the words seemed to finally hit him.

…Why was he acting like being able to call Luna by her name was the best luxury he could've ever asked for? Noctis decided to file the particular question away for later.

"Hey, Luna: I swear I'm not being sexist and just assuming things…but do you know how to ride a chocobo? I only ask because your feet seem to be slipping off of her now, and maybe the Nifs wouldn't let you lear-"

"That was the one thing I made _sure_ that they let me discover, Noctis. I knew riding a chocobo might be necessary, with my job as Oracle and all. So I threatened Niflheim to either let me do that one, simple thing… or else I would rally people up who thought it was an insult to my job that I couldn't go to Lucis and heal people there, and then attack them."

To say that Noctis was speechless at these words from Luna would've been an understatement.

It wasn't that he _doubted_ Luna's strength—or that he didn't realize she was better at the political game than he'd ever be—but he was worried that Niflheim could have just easily killed her after a show like that.

And if she wasn't as important to the world as she was, he knew that they would have done exactly that without a second thought.

Since Luna knew just how much she was desired to heal the blight, that was why she had made her wager and done what she had.

But that didn't mean that Noctis was less afraid of the alternate future that _could've_ happened with that.

He wanted to ask why she never told him this in any of their letters to each other, but he held back in not wanting to be a demanding and restricting boyfriend… if that was even what he was to her.

Prompto whistled at the turn of events, and pumped his hand into the air—to which his chocobo kwehed—and shouted, "Woo-hoo! You rule, Lady Lu- Err, Luna! I thought your face looked unyielding every time I ever saw you on TV, but who would've thought you ever would have gone that far with it? Sheesh!"

"That means a lot to me, coming from one who helped a dog that bore the sigil of my house hidden within her fur. You did a lot in taking her in and caring for her the way that you did, so you are much brave yourself. And now, I find that your words—coming from you of all people—warm my heart. Thank you very much, Prompto."

 _Please don't get a crush on Luna now. Please don't get a crush on Luna now. Please don't get a crush on Luna now,_ Noctis repeated this mantra in his head over and over again—leaning forward some, so that he could pet Zidaneschocobo's nuzzle while they waited for Ignis and Gladio to finally show up.

What were the two of them doing, _anyway_?

Noctis got his answer soon enough: the two men were bringing a somewhat shy violet chocobo over to Prompto—and it took both of them to do this; Gladio to guide the avian and Ignis to keep her calm—and when Prompto turned around and noticed the three of them just behind him, he asked, "What's this?"

"We thought that maybe you would like having a chocobo of this color, Prompto," Ignis answered, with a look on his face that seemed to tell Noctis that _Ignis_ maybe wished he could have had the mount himself, but was still offering Prompto this opportunity without any regrets. "We overheard you and Noct talking about how you don't think you belong with us, you see. And since you've long ago proven yourself, how about nipping that theory in the bud and riding on the shade of royalty, eh?"

 _I have the best friends in the world. I literally have the best friends in the world_ , Noctis thought—feeling more glad to be king than he ever had in his life. If it meant ruling over subjects like this, and keeping them safe from all harm, then he would take the hard work that came with it any day.

And if the way Luna cantered over to him on her mount "Sing-Song" and squeezed his hand in her own was any indication, she felt the exact same way.

"I don't- I don't know what to say," Prompto replied, as tears began dotting his eyelashes.

Noctis meant to say something in return to this, but Gladio was already giving answer enough:

"How about you get off the chicken you're currently on—that's too short for you, anyway—and get onto this beauty here, before she runs away."

And without another word, Prompto did exactly that.

Once he was seated, he turned to nod at Gladio and Ignis in turn and then even Noctis and Luna—and Noctis debated if he was wearing as stupid a face as Prompto was right now; he didn't doubt that he probably was—and after Gladio and Ignis got their own favorite rentals from Wiz, they all headed out.

…

The trek to Lestallum didn't end up being a too tiring one.

It took a long time—and everyone got hot and sweaty, yes—and more than once Noctis called that they should pause and give the faithful companions a break and some food, but they still made it to the underpass that lead to the city in pretty record time.

And the only hang-up they had at all was when a daemon began appearing out of the road at six in the evening somehow—to which everyone had begun having anxiety attacks over; and in that moment, Luna had looked more scared than Noctis had ever seen her be; and he'd thought about trying to cheer her up by pointing out they were going to a beautiful city, almost as good looking as the one they were meant to marry in—but then the daemon began sinking, as if realizing it had made a mistake and everything was good again.

At that, everyone burst out laughing and wondered if maybe they'd just been seeing things and it had never really happened at all…

But deep down, Noctis knew they were really all horrified beyond belief.

Had that been a sign that daemons might be able to sprout out much earlier now, or-

When Noctis saw a food vendor's cart right in front of him, as they got out of that cursed tunnel, he thanked his lucky stars and explained, "I'm going to get six burger skewers for us—one for Iris, and one for all of us—and then we can finally head to the hotel, okay?"

But the moment that Noctis went to get them, he could tell that something was wrong.

Apparently the food seller was out of ketchup… which was really no big deal. But when the vendor seemed to think that Noctis was going to ask for some, he said angrily, "And I ain't gonna make any of the stuff, either. Even _with_ a plethora of tomatoes in this place; I ain't risking it. Ya hear me? I ain't risking it!"

And then the man shoved the very much ketchup-less burger skewers into Noctis' face, before turning around and pretending to get out more lemons to make lemonade… even though he had a full pitcher of it right there in front of them.

"Why do you think it's too big a risk t-"

Gladio ended up voicing his concerns the exact moment Noctis had tried to. "I don't like this. I don't like this one bit. Let's go check in with Iris, and see if she has any idea what's going on."

The Fantastic Five, as Prompto ended up calling them, were tense on their way to the inn.

They all tied their chocobos near the parking lot—but then they were heading up the hill and to the left with fidgeting bodies.

And though Noctis knew this wasn't at all where his mind should've been right now, he found himself feeling uneasy about Luna and Iris meeting.

Noct was pretty sure that Iris liked him—and he wondered if Luna had been able to glean that, the time he had told her how Iris had made him a ham for Thanksgiving in knowing that he hated turkey.

Knowing just how sharp Luna was, Noctis didn't put it past her to have figured out Iris' feelings for him even before he had…

"This place is like a ghost town. Highness, I'm afraid that the empire attacked this city and _that's_ why everyone's in hiding."

Noctis let his friends go before him over the threshold now—but even with them all directly in front of him, he could still see the person they were somewhat obscuring: Iris.

Somehow, Noctis got the impression that she'd been sitting where she now was for days—mayhap it was because she looked thinner to him, like she'd been skipping meals, that he thought that—and the second she seemed to finally register them, she rocketed across the room and was in Gladiolus' arms in an instant.

Gladio groaned in pain, as if knowing immediately the kind of tale Iris was going to tell them.

"Oh, Glady. It's terrible!" Iris sobbed, while she seemed to unconsciously dig her nails into her big brother's arms.

Noctis began trying to count as high as he could, to keep his sanity, as the world spun around him and the burger skewers dropped from his hands.

"The Empire was here! I don't- I don't know why, but they began interrogating Jared! And when he refused to talk, they took him outside and had a public execution! I can't breathe, Glady. I can't breathe! And they terrorized a good portion of the town, too. And Talcott-"

"What about this 'Talcott'?" Luna asked. She must've been able to hear from the tone of Iris' voice that the boy was a child, Noctis though, because with a hand clutched over her heart, she questioned in a horrified voice, "Is he-"

"No, no," Iris seemed to answer as if she were in some sort of trance—though the grip she had on her brother's forearms did seem to lessen, so maybe she was waking up from it. "Talcott is- Talcott is okay. He's at the park, mourning his grandpa. So this experience hasn't made it so he can't stand the outside in general now, thank the gods, but-"

"But I'm going to make you some hot cocoa, Iris," Ignis interrupted the story, looking at his junior with nothing but sympathy on his face.

Was the weight that Iris now bore on her shoulders the type that Ignis' had had to do the same with for years, in being the Hand of the King? Noctis tried to decide, feeling disgusted with himself.

"I know you don't like mine that much, after the time I put an odd cherry flavoring into it that I saw laying around. But I won't do that this time, and I'll make you feel better this way. Okay?"

Iris was able to mouth a "thank you" to Ignis without crying, but the moment the word left her mouth the waterworks started up again.

Noctis had had enough.

"Gladio, Iris... Tomorrow night, I want you to leave this place and take on new identities. Do not come near me again, and do not speak of me. That's an order from your king."

 _Iris isn't saying it, but I know they must've questioned her, too. Anyone with eyes, who figured out who I am, would have seen me paling around with her here. And after Clarus, I don't want any more Amicitias getting hurt for my family._

Prompto, somewhat creeping everyone out, began laughing without humor here.

Gladio glowered at him for it, Iris blinked a few times, and Luna became positively rigid.

Noctis just waited.

Prompto straightened up, from where he'd sat on the floor with his face buried in his lap. And with red-rimmed eyes, he asked the million gil question that Noctis hadn't been ready to answer. "What? You gonna try and force us away to keep us safe, Noct? And way to bring this up when Ignis isn't in the room to talk some sense into you, by the way.

"In case you don't remember, your father told us all to stay with you until the end. We _all_ agreed to that, so here we are. It was and _is_ our choice to make. You may be king, Noct... but you can't just take people's decisions away from them. Especially when the stakes are higher than ever, and-"

Noctis' ears had turned red in his fury.

He whirled around towards Prompto, and resisted the urge to scream at him.

Never in a million years had Noctis thought he'd get into a fight with _Prompto_ of all people!

And just where was the man suddenly getting his courage to follow him into danger from?

"Please, don't fight!" Iris urged, as she turned her hands into balls and pressed them against her eyes, so she wouldn't have to see what was going on before her.

"Except Iris didn't make that choice, which is exactly the problem, Prompto," Noctis whispered. He wanted to smile at all his friends here—to try and make them understand where he was coming from—but he wasn't able to manage it.

"And neither has Luna, as far as I'm concerned—because she made her decision as a child, before she could really understand what she was getting herself into."

"Prince Noctis, that's not tru-"

But Noctis couldn't look at, or listen to, the one person who had the ability to make him stay, so he just waved her comment away.

"I won't have anyone else dying for me. I am your king—your _rightful_ king—and I have spoken."

Noctis may or may not have heard Gladio telling him that he was hardly that at all, if he didn't reclaim his throne.

But he had already run off into the night.

...

Noctis ended up sitting on some stairs in Lestallum—listening two thieves through a window, talk about some great treasure they had lost once.

Noctis was of half a mind to try and find the thing himself, and sell it. That way, he could take care of his friends that way without ever even reclaiming his throne.

…And maybe so he could also have enough money to pay for Gladio and Iris' new identities that he'd he'd just suggested.

"What a mess," Noctis whined, and he buried his head in his knees and tried to just breathe.

As he was doing so, Noctis saw a shock of white through his fingertips.

His first thought, of course, was that it was Luna.

But that didn't end up being the case at all. Instead, it was:

"Ravus Nox Fleuret," Noctis spoke the name before he could take it back.

And the moment he did, Ravus' eyes narrowed on to him and Noctis felt a bit… strange about it.

It was mainly because until recently, he hadn't seen Luna for years—and so had tried to imagine her twelve-year-old face but older at times.

And since Noctis saw a man's face looking at him every morning, he ended up accidentally imagining Luna more… masculine than he had meant to and a bit like Ravus that way, apparently.

Shaking his head—to clear it of the dumb attraction he shouldn't have at all had for the other man—Noctis interrupted Ravus' annoyed "Caelum!" with, "There's something wrong with your sister. I don't know how to explain it, exactly, but she has a green tint to her. And she always looks damp now, no matter what... at least to some people. But she's still dry to the touch. I don't know what to make of it at all... but she says her affliction comes from another world."

The entire time Noctis had been talking, Ravus had been clenching and unclenching his metal hand.

He had looked as though he wanted to bite Noctis' head off, but at the last second he schooled his expression and instead became calculating.

"That is madness. I had thought that you were talking about- but no, I don't think that would be the case yet.

"If you truly want to save my sister, from this thing that seems to be making her rot, I can think of only one answer: appease the gods or your ancestors—or perhaps both—and get the answer from them. For even if she could do those same tasks herself, Lunafreya would not act to save her own skin. Of that I am certain.

"So I ask you, Lucis Caelum: Will you accompany me to the location of one of your Royal Arms for Luna's sake?"

Of course, what Noctis really wanted to do was tell Ravus to go fuck himself—because he could now smell ash coming off of what was left of his former arm, and that could only mean that he'd tried to wear the Ring of the Lucii.

But as it began raining overhead, so that tears fell onto the face of a random statue beside Noct—so it now looked like it was weeping—he knew what his answer should be.

But instead, the hapless prince thought about Luna… and how this could be a way to get his ancestor's power without endangering his friends.

So in the end, he only had one word to say to Ravus Nox Fleuret:

One word that he could say at all.

"Yes."

 **Author's Note: (1) I once read a fanfiction that said the water in Altissia is partly frozen. And since then, I've kind of been down with that headcanon, I guess, so in my mind Leviathan can turn her water into ice if she wishes to.**

 **I know weird things are going on with Luna, but it's all important to the plot and will be explained eventually. I swear it.**

 **Also, Noctis' chocobo in this is just completely based off of mine (color and name), because why not?**

 **And I swear there's not going to be any weird bisexual!Noctis or Ravus/Noctis subplot or anything like that.**

 **Usually, in my Noctluna stories, I have it so they've seen each other on the news and stuff over the years. But to be different this time, I'm not having that be the case. That means Noctis tried to imagine older!Luna with really nothing to go off of, and kind of ended up imagining her as Ravus. LOL. –shrugs-**

 **I also apologize for the plethora of mistakes that are probably here. I did edit this entire thing once. But even then, this thing is so long and tiring to go through, that there's probably a ton that I missed. I'm so sorry for that:(**

 **Anyway, this story is going to be an alternate ending section the game (with all of the chapters that are still left to go being in it, so basically eight through fourteen), so I hope you all enjoy and I'll see you next time!:D**

 **But just know that though this story IS Noctluna, it's not going to be Noctluna 24/7 5ever and ever. Noct and Luna will both have moments away from each other with each of the bros, among other things (like how Noctis just went off with Ravus and all).**

 **Oh, and it's the Ignis/Iris pairing (kind of), because I kind of got the impression Ignis might like Iris from that one scene where he talks about how kindhearted she is or something, but meh.**

 **Yeah…**

 **Shutting up now.**

 **-Shanna**


	2. Chapter Two: Empty Chairs Empty Tables

**Chapter Two: Empty Chairs at Empty Tables**

 **Luna's PoV**

Luna wasn't sure, exactly, when all of Noctis' friends decided that he had flown the coop, and just when she finally agreed with them about it.

When she looked back on it later, she would realize just how obvious what Noctis had been planning to do was.

But she'd been too focused on comforting Prompto—who burst into tears the moment Noctis left, though he tried desperately to hide it—and ripping off the skirt part of her pants to give to Iris as a shawl:

The poor girl had looked as though she'd been freezing.

"He's gone..." Gladio eventually said aloud—to try and break the silence, Luna was sure. "I know- I know because when I ask him to train at camp, he begins to say 'no'... but then catches himself—so he doesn't hurt my feelings—and then finds a nicer way to get out of it.

"What we saw now wasn't that different from that. Noct said how he really feels about the situation, but now he's banking that we won't think he gave his intentions away so easily. But really he did, and we should go after him."

Gladio's tattooed arms were crossed over his chest, and he looked like he was about to leave to do exactly what he'd said—to which Luna could only pray that he'd succeed in his endeavors—but Gladio's forward motion was put on hold by Ignis.

He came back into the room with the hot chocolate for Iris—though it looked a bit odd to Luna, and she thought he must have been forced to use cocoa powder for it, instead of Swiss Miss—and mumbled, "He left with Ravus Nox Fleuret, in the general's car.

"His highness came back this way—I saw him out the kitchen window—and I think he almost told us what he was going to do... But then he was running back down the street, and diving into said automobile. I jumped out the window... chased after him and called his name, but he still just rode on past. And now who even knows where he is?"

Prompto gulped at this news; Gladio looked murderous for it, and Iris drank the drink Ignis had given her, to fight against things she wanted to say (or so Luna guessed), and Luna...

When she stopped worrying her pant legs, she was able to begin thinking out loud: "Noctis is no fool. I know that. If he went with my brother, for whatever the reason, he must know it's safe. And as awful as it seems, I know that Noctis would never shrink from his duties—aside from, perhaps, the one he just spoke of, about giving you Amicitias new identities.

"But umm... I have no doubt that Noctis is either after a Royal Arm now, or a Covenant: The question is which one, and how we find him."

"By knowing he's still selfish," Iris said under her breath, as she rolled her eyes.

And despite the fact that the woman who had just spoken had a bit of a milk mustache on her face… Luna could tell that she was absolutely _furious_ at Noctis.

And with just how her eyes were positively blazing at the moment, Luna found herself realizing that Iris Amicitia was now a woman to be trifled with—and she was glad for that, for many a reason.

"Look, I know Noct is trying to be noble and selfless now, and all that... But he's also still the guy who hated to see his dad age prematurely, and who- Who ran away when Glady and my father never _once_ did that, but instead stayed with Noctis' own dad until the very end!

"So Noctis is really _not_ unselfish... so even if he's doing the stuff he is now for the world's sake, I imagine he'd choose a needed location closest to a fishing spot first."

Iris wasn't wrong: As much as Luna loved her fiancé, she knew how single-minded he could be at times—after having been coddled for too long, because of his near-death experience.

And there was also the fact that Noctis had shared many fishing lures with Luna in their private notebook…

Decision made, Luna stood up straight and looked at each of her new friends in turn.

"I think you're right, Iris. Thank you. And based on that information, we'll try and deduce Noctis' most likely location. But let us do so tomorrow. It's late, and I think we all need some rest before we go to confront our demons."

Everyone agreed to this—and decided to hit the hay, so that they could get up earlier in the morning to begin their search.

...They did end up playing one game of Trouble first, however, to try and calm their nerves—and because the name of the game was only fitting, with what Noctis had gotten himself into.

After that, Gladio ended up walking with Luna to retrieve Talcott:

He had volunteered for this, because Luna, sadly, thought he was using focusing on children to forget the death of his father.

And he pretty much ended up admitting just as much to Luna, when they came across a concrete bench outside of Lestallum's one college.

"Sometimes I miss being a kid," The Sworn Shield admitted, a bit misty-eyed. "Everything was so much better and easier back then... And there's actually a sitting area that's not so different than this one back in Insomnia: My friends and I used to play that game there—where you pound on each other's back and then run your hand down it, to pretend that you stabbed them there. But anyway..."

They had reached where Talcott was playing in the flowers now.

And Gladio ran up to the boy, and began suggesting that he also pick some dandelions for fun.

Dandelions… they were always a good thing to have in rocky situations, Luna thought:

There had even been times that she, Maria, and Ravus had had to live off of them, even, the few times Niflheim had gotten fed up with them and had tried to starve them out.

"I know just how you feel, Gladio," Luna told her companion—as she sidled up to where he was now kneeling on the ground, and wrapped an arm around his shoulder.

"There were some books I loved as a child, where girls sold kisses at booths. Really, I don't think ladies would truly do that anymore... And it was probably just wishful thinking on the male authors' parts to write that begin with. But if Talcott wants it… I might believe in my old childish fantasy once again-and pen a booth where I kiss him on the cheek twenty-four-seven, if it will make him feel better."

And as fate would have it, some girls chose that moment to walk on by and to make fun of Talcott for his tears.

Having had quite enough of that, Luna pulled the boy to her side and pecked the side of his face; and that shut the young women up toot sweet, when they realized that Luna was the Oracle.

And Talcott—getting to his feet, and stammering as he bowed—began profusely thanking "Luna… err, Lady Lunafreya" for her actions.

With both of the adults holding onto one of Talcott's hands, they made their way back to the hotel.

And Luna might have been imagining it… but she thought that Gladiolus was, perhaps, looking at her in a more appreciative way than he ever had even Noctis.

Bidding both the tragic little boy and her fiancé's bodyguard goodnight, Luna went upstairs and finally let her head hit a pillow.

But she didn't immediately go to sleep the moment that it happened.

Instead the gods kept whispering in Luna's mind, that she needed to hurry up and make the Covenants and have Noctis fulfill his destiny.

Luna ignored these things, and instead focused on how she missed Noctis' body beside her own.

An interesting thought to be sure, for she and Noctis had only spent one night by each other's sides—as he'd feigned sleep, so that she wouldn't have to feel unsure.

But already, Luna felt like their bodies were magnets—and not even necessarily in an intimate way—and she missed the current that passed between them when Noctis was near.

And that was the most _outlandish_ thing to Luna, because she'd _never_ given much stock to these kinds of claims in romance novels before… and yet here she was.

...She hadn't felt any differently in seeing Noctis' adult face for the first time: He had just been the young boy she'd always known and loved, even in the moment she'd come face-to-face with him for the first time in twelve years.

Viewing his countenance had not suddenly made his love letters more real to her, either… So why was her body acting differently from her mind now, when it came to Noctis?

And speaking of her body… Luna found that it was almost sick, with visions of footsteps on ice, a flowing pleated skirt, and what appeared to be red wolves?

Suddenly feeling nauseous, Luna dashed out of her bed and ran to the bathroom to throw up—clutching the porcelain toilet in her hands as she did so.

And after she was done spilling out the contents of her stomach, the princess ripped off the necklace that surrounded her neck—that she loved oh so much—and chucked it aside.

If her brother and Noctis were missing—and she still chose to be weak, by getting sick like this—she decided she didn't need her prized possession.

She didn't need or deserve anything, for that matter.

 **Noctis' PoV**

Noctis had been torn on how to act with Ravus, when the two of them piled into his truck.

Noctis had ample reason to hate the rival prince—and he very much wanted to despise him, when he noticed Ravus' vehicle was like the evil Judd Travers' pickup truck from "Shiloh": one of the few books Noctis had ever read—but he found himself trying to find common ground with him about Luna instead.

"Why does she dot her 'I's' with stars?" Noctis asked, looking out into the sky above them—and wondering if it was written in the constellations somewhere that he and Luna were meant to be together.

And if that was the case... Where did that place them now—when he'd decided to leave her for the greater good, and to truly be a prince for her?

"By 'stars'," Ravus said with a sigh, as he clutched the steeling wheel tighter—as they made it through Old Lestallum—and seemed to consider Noctis for a moment, "I assume you mean the strange diagram shapes she makes, that looks every bit as much like tendons as they do stars.

"She makes those because it's the one art project she ever succeeded in, against a teacher who hated her. For it, you usually use twelve-inch by twelve-inch paper, make a cross, and put six dots—two-inches apart from each other—on the horizontal and vertical lines. You then connect the first dot on a vertical, with the beginning one on a horizontal, and so on and so forth until you have a star."

Ravus was drifting now—going back and forth over the gravel beneath them, so that Noctis could almost imagine what it would feel like to have it embedded in his hands.

It was... dangerous, this drifting with the car that Ravus was doing now. But even with that, Noctis couldn't help but feel this way about the entire situation:

"You won't betray or kill me, because I've taken a genuine interest in your sister's soul—something she needed someone to do, after she lost so much and Niflheim tormented her so. "

Ravus actually looked like he wanted to murder Noctis for his words _alone_ , and for a second the king of Lucis wondered if he'd made a dire mistake in coming with the Tenebraen.

And as much as Noctis wanted to care about that… he found that he couldn't.

So what if he died? Maybe the world would even be better off without him… He was certainly beginning to feel like that was the case.

"I suppose you're right," Ravus admitted. There was something in his eyes then—though it was a bit too dark to really see it—and Noctis wondered if the man was now pondering why he'd left Luna alone for so long, if he was just going to give up on his revenge in the end… Making everything that had come before it completely meaningless.

"You have been there for Lunafreya in a time when no one else was. Not even myself, I am ashamed to say.

"And you are… respectful to her, from what I have read of your diary—do not look so surprised. You really think she could've kept such a thing from me indefinitely?—and yet I still do not support your union. You have tragedy written all over you story, Noctis Lucis Caelum.

"And you are the dreamy kind. Very much a Romeo, I find. ' _Death_ , that hath sucked the honey of thy breath, hath had no power yet upon thy beauty,' sounds like something you might say to my sister. And know that if that is to happen, Caelum… If I think you will be instrumental in her death in any way, shape, or form, even now—when you're trying to save her—then I will not hesitate to cut you down."

They were now beside some of the bluest water that Noctis had ever even seen in his life—a kind that he never would have believed existed before, were he not currently seeing it with his own eyes.

In growing up in the bustling city of Insomnia, the idea of places that broke the norm of that town had just seemed like a fairytale to Noctis—even when he saw their photos in books, and tried to put two-and-two together to picture how they might look like in real life, with what he knew—and yet here they were.

And if this roaring water didn't look like the prime place for fishing, Noctis didn't know what did.

And while he once would have once been jubilant about such a fact, Noctis found that he barely even considered it now.

He didn't deserve luxuries in life—when so many had already spilled their blood for him, and still planned to do so.

Rolling down the window on his side, Noctis grabbed the carbuncle doll that he had brought with him before heading out and chucked it at some of the crystalline liquid all around him, before it was too late to do so.

And he prayed to the gods—who had abandoned him, in his mind—to let some kid find it, so that Carbuncle could guard a better person than he was through their darkest dreams.

Turning to Ravus—who was now looking at Noctis with a puzzled expression on his face, as he slammed on the brakes when the road before them turned into but a bike path—Noctis told him the truth about his feelings: "As you should. And if you don't… If Luna ever dies because of me, you won't have to lay a finger on me. I'll kill myself."

And Noctis opened his car door, and jumped out of it while the truck was still slightly moving.

Noctis could sense where the entrance to this Tomb was now—over a bridge, and then spiraling upward—and if he could spare Luna's brother the trouble of going there, then he would do that.

…But first he needed to sleep, if he was going to be strong enough to convince his ancestors to lend him their power. And that meant camping.

So Noctis jogged to the nearest haven that he could find.

And thinking of Luna, he touched one of the wards and prayed to her, perhaps, that he'd be able to keep Ravus safe.

Just as the thought had entered his head, Noctis noticed some blue light shoot outward to rest on the grass that Ravus' feet had just touched.

Somehow… Noctis had just created two separate sanctuaries: one for Ravus and one for himself, he found—breathing heavily, as he felt like his inside might catch on fire.

He and Ravus were currently next to each other… and yet still kept apart.

And Noctis wouldn't have had it any other way: If he got dragged into hell, he didn't want to drive Ravus down with him:

…But also because there was a darker part of Noctis that thought that Ravus deserved even worse than that, were he to fall, with all the enemy general had done.

But shaking his head of that insanity, Noctis tried to hold onto sanity; and he thought that maybe with their sleeping arrangements this way, it would be easier to sneak away from the-now-glaring man in the morning—when he really headed for the tomb.

Wishing that if this was Luna's burden that he was now feeling that she'd never have to bear it again, Noctis found himself losing consciousness as he broke into a cold sweat.

And his head hit the surprisingly warm stone beneath him..

 **Luna's PoV**

The Oracle woke up with a splitting headache, while feeling like she was freezing to death.

The events of the night before came rushing back to Luna—much sooner than she might have liked them to—and she remembered that she'd had a fit, after she had gotten ill, and she instantly regretted all of it.

Luna had acted in such a way a few times after becoming Oracle… but she had thought she was past those types of emotional outbursts now.

Apparently, she was not.

And for her stupidity, the jewels that had been in her necklace had come out and were now shattered.

And Luna, feeling horrid because of this, found herself very much desiring that she had gotten jewelry lessons during her time in captivity somehow—as the pendant had come from Ignis!

It had been in a time when Luna had been down on herself, for not having any friends she could talk to in Tenebrae, and had—in the heat of the moment—related those feelings to Noctis, when she wrote to him.

It hadn't been too long after that that she had received the gift from Ignis—as Noctis had told his senior about Luna's dilemma, and he'd acted immediately to let her know that she wasn't alone.

Luna even still had the beautiful note that he had given her with it. It read:

"Lady Lunafreya… I cannot imagine how awkward this message must be for you. While I am certain we both know of each other, we have not spoken a day in our lives. But Prince Noctis has told me that your admirable strength has begun to wane a bit—and how awe-inspiring it is, that you've been able to stand tall and hold onto the light and what's right for so long—and I just want you to know that you are not alone. Any friend of Noctis' is a friend of mine, so I hold you as exactly that in my heart. I await the day that we can finally meet face to face.

"And please know that his Majesty and his Highness have been working around the clock many years, to try and come up with a plan to free you. I have no doubt that one day we will succeed, and who knows? Maybe when that day comes, you will be the one with a present for me."

Luna could've kicked herself: Not only had she failed to keep this slight promise with Ignis (though in her defense, she had had no idea that she'd run into her beloved and his entourage when she had gone to find Ramuh), but now she'd even destroyed her favorite item in the world!

If she had been a lesser woman, Luna knew that she would've stayed in bed all day and just cried for all the cruel hands that had been dealt her.

Maybe she would've even cradled a bottle of alcohol, and just drunk the pain away.

But Lunafreya Nox Fleuret was not that kind of person.

So instead of doing anything remotely close to that, the Oracle left her room and went out into the hall.

The moment that Luna saw Iris coming up the stairs—the person she so desperately wanted to see right now—she motioned the younger girl over with hand signals and put a finger to her lips, so that she would understand the need for quiet.

Then, when Iris was in Luna's room and the door was closed, Luna began explaining in hysterics just what had happened.

"I… sort of lost it last night. And while I could stop to try and defend myself, I shan't do that. It is not worth it, and I do not think I deserve to. But I- I promised my dear friend Ignis something long ago, and I broke that oath. And furthermore, I foolishly ruined something that he gave me. Whatever can I do now? How can I face him without it?"

Iris just stared at Luna wide-eyed—as she sat on the bed, seeming not to understand—and for an instance, Luna thought that this would be her punishment for trying to take someone that Iris loved away from her.

Finally, the brunette said, "…And what is this thing of yours that you broke?"

Luna face-palmed, understanding that she had forgotten to tell the most important part of her tale.

Going back into the bathroom, the former princess picked the chain, moon, and gems up, before then returning to Iris.

And the look that Iris wore on her face didn't exactly bode well to Luna:

The young lady stood up, and crossed one leg behind the other in an uncomfortable looking fashion. "Yeah… Lady Lunafreya, I don't think there's any fixing this at all. I'm sorry. But the ornaments within that charm just seem so… fragile. Maybe you can tell Ignis that you decided you didn't want to be the moon anymore, if you no longer have your light of the night sky here beside you?"

This floored Luna.

She'd imagined meeting Iris many times in her head… were it to ever happen. And whilst Luna had been prepared to show her somewhat rival nothing but kindness—because fighting over Noctis would be a silly and pointless endeavor, especially when Luna knew what her own fate was—she hadn't been sure if Iris would be the same way or not.

And yet Iris was now talking about Luna's feelings for Noctis with no pain or trouble whatsoever; and Luna began thinking that whatever feelings the Amicitia had possibly had for Noctis had disappeared the night before.

As if having read Luna's mind, Iris took a step forward and put a hand atop the blonde's shoulder—her black skirt swishing slightly as she did so, making Luna think that maybe she liked that particular color, after all. "Look, I'm not going to pretend that all my feelings for Noct have just magically gone away. They're probably going to be there for some time. And I know it'll probably be awful in certain instances…but I'd be lying if I said I didn't lose a bit of my respect for him last night, with the way he ran away like that. Amicitias don't do that, so why should the king we serve behave that way? And did you see the way that Noctis hurt Prompto? I never thought I'd see that happen…

 _"But anyway, how I do or don't feel about Noctis isn't something I'm going to let color how I interact with you, Lunafreya._ You're my hero, in a lot of ways—as I know just how hard you're fighting to keep the light in the world… And Ignis is also my friend. So if you need help to try and not break his heart, I'm going to be right there with you."

And so Luna and Iris came up with a plan: Iris might not have known anything about necklaces, but she did about earrings—in some fit of teenage rebellion that she'd had, apparently—and so the two girls decided that they would let Iris fashion the crystals that had fallen from Luna's namesake into an earring for Ignis.

And Iris was speedy with her work! Luna sensed that there was a story there, but she dared not ask it.

But in less than six hours—when Prompto, Ignis, and Gladio were all trying to narrow down Noctis' location on a map—Luna and Iris snuck up behind Ignis with the prize.

The adviser didn't even seem to notice them at first.

Instead, he was sitting in a blue armchair and mumbling to himself about trying to track Noctis' cell phone—because they knew he wouldn't pick it up if they called him—even with areas outside of Insomnia's "ancient technology".

But when Iris cleared her throat, that got Ignis and everyone else's attention right away.

Ignis put down the microwave cake he'd made in a mug—and had seemed about ready to eat—and looked at Luna so inquisitively, that it made Luna more nervous than she could ever remember being.

"I find- I find that I owe you an apology, sir," Luna spluttered, while Prompto raised an eyebrow, Gladio whistled—as if conspiracy theories were now entering his head—and Ignis just remained blinking at her. "I haven't forgotten your niceness to me, you see. And yet I failed you, in not returning the favor you once asked of me. And even more than that… I have now forever lost the first present that I received from a friend.

"But it's not all doom and gloom!" Luna exclaimed, the moment that Ignis seemed about to sit up to try and say something—and while Gladio and Prompto relaxed, and also seemed to want to weigh-in.

Iris, meanwhile, just appeared amused.

"You see, I've turned what was left of it into a number '1' earring, for you, so that you can now have something… And so that when I look your way, I can still see my former possession fondly."

It was raining outside, Luna noticed—as everything became so quiet now, that she was certain they'd be able to hear a pen drop—because Ramuh was no doubt furious with her.

But just when Luna was about to lay her life down on the line to the angry god, Ignis came over and gave her a slight hug. "You've suffered too much to worry about others so thoroughly, Lady Lunafreya. What you deserve now is to have some fun and peace. And I thank you for your sensitivity, your memory, and your gift—even after losing Noctis, which I know can't be easy for you; it isn't for any of us."

Stepping away from Luna, and taking the earring from her hand—so that he could hold it up to the light—Ignis smirked. "To be quite honest… This type of jewelry is not my cup of tea. I might have only entertained the idea of it in the past, when I was trying to help Noctis be rebellious without being too much so.

"But for you, my dear Oracle, I will make an exception. I even suspect that this piece of art will have raindrops land on it instead, so they don't land on my neck all the time; and I cannot appreciate that enough, Lady Lunafreya."

Before she knew it, Luna found herself crying… She had forgotten what true happiness felt like—as well as friendship, if she had ever really known what that was at all.

But now, even in the midst of her darkest hour, Luna was beginning to see light.

Not the literal kind that she fought for, but the figurative kind; and it stopped any hesitation that existed within her heart.

As everyone in the room embraced Luna at once—spurred on by Iris asking if she could use some of the leftover materials to make Talcott a cactuar, and Luna concurring—she found that she was still soaking wet from her affliction and her tears…

But in this moment, she didn't mind: Luna could ignore it, and instead focus on how this was the warmest she'd ever felt.

Now all that was missing were two people, and Luna even had an idea on how to find them:

"What if we go to some of the towers that connect to the generators here, and see if you can trace Nocti—err, Noct's—phone that way?"

Gladio broke the spell by saying, "Sounds like a plan. Come on: let's go find our chocobos. Your lazy boyfriend might have gotten a car to take him where he needed to be, Lady Lunafreya, but it looks like we're going to have to have a harder journey than he did."

But Prompto didn't seem to be having that particular idea. He somewhat contradicted Luna's idea, almost acting as though he hadn't heard her at all, when he scratched his ear and said: "Err… so which area do we think Noct is at again? We were thinking Tombs near fishing spots, right?"

Luna wanted to giggle for Prompto seeming to be now fixated on his ear, like she sometimes was (as she, sadly, thought that she had pretty big ones), but she held it back, in noticing that Prompto had been acting somewhat strangely for two days now. So clearly something was weighing heavily on his soul.

...And Luna also did not laugh, because Noctis was still not with her. And until he was, Luna would not let herself be fully happy.

With that particular thought in mind, Luna found herself reminiscing… About how Noctis had once sent her a paper in their journal that was tear-stained—because of the song "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables", that he'd listened to the first time when writing back to her—and he had given it to her, because he'd wanted to share his feelings about that moving piece of art.

Now... Now that song resonated in Luna's heart without Noctis—and she was beginning to feel miserable for it—and it even made her think what his fate was, which just threatened to make her cry.

"Didn't Talcott mention that the Malmalam Thicket was a good candidate?" Gladiolus seemed to remember then, as he moved back from the exit he'd just been headed to and folded his hands in prayer. "Or at least... I _think_ he said Jared once told him that kind of story, but I dunno."

Everyone cringed at the direction the conversation had now taken. And Ignis' earring even made a jostling sound, ever so slightly, as he shook his head at the horrible thought of it all.

The topic of Jared still wasn't a happy one, but the group here—in a non-cruel way—had now decided to pretend what they had learned when it came to the man hadn't happened.

And Luna—as she put in a feather into her braid for once, to try and recall the "fun" feeling she'd been having a moment ago… that was now completely slipping away—thought of a novel she had once read:

It was about a daughter who had been forced to leave her family, and had then thought about how her loved ones would probably fill her chair in with someone else, eventually—for human beings really cannot handle loss and change.

And Luna? Luna thought that that sentiment was, unfortunately, right.

"I- I believe you're right, Gladio," Ignis admitted, taking one bite from the microwave cake—before getting up to once more "make tracks", it would seem.

…And it suddenly became so clear to Luna, that since Ignis was using that non-gourmet snack to get sustenance—and hadn't really cooked at all the past two days—that there truly _was_ a hole in his heart over Noctis, as he'd said.

"So to the Malmalam Thicket, away?" Prompto clarified.

"Take some greens for your chocobos' flight this time," Iris told the group then, somewhat absentmindedly, as she now mainly seemed to be focused on the men who manned the check-in booth of the hotel.

Wavering under Iris' gaze some, the two boys went ahead and showed the bucket of chocobo feed that they'd been hiding, and Iris grinned for it.

"…If you're actually serious about leaving with the chocobos now, I mean, and _aren't_ just going to dally some more.

"But in all seriousness... best of luck, guys. I know you'll succeed, so give Noct my best. I'll be here with Talcott, since the residents of Lestallum—miraculously after _everything_ —have said that they'll let the two of us stay here forever; so I'm going to try and make this a home for Talcott. What's a better house than one with a lot of rooms, right?"

Since they were getting along so well now, Luna chose not to tell her girl friend about the manor she'd lived in—even if she'd jokingly wanted to, to assure Iris that she'd been absolutely right about her last statement.

So instead of speaking, Luna just grabbed a piece of notebook paper, folded into wings, and put it down the back of her dress—to let Iris know that she was _so_ ready to go, that she was now emulating their fine-feathered friends—and then walked off with the boys trailing right behind her.

And as it turned out, that was the best way Luna could've ever said goodbye to Iris—because now the younger girl, ironically, would respect her all the more.

 **Noctis' PoV**

The first thing Noctis noticed—when he entered the Malmalam Thicket, that he knew would lead him to the Tomb—was that it was like a safari.

The Chosen couldn't quite wrap his head around that—since the outside was so frigid with its precipitation—but the inside of the cave-like structure was piping hot.

So the sooner they got this over with the better, Noctis thought.

...Ravus _had_ eventually ended up catching up with him—something that Noctis wasn't exactly too keen on—and now the two of them were going up a steep and grassy incline, where the ways you could go after reaching it seemed endless.

"This place smells like hay, and I hate the scent of it," Ravus complained, as he attempted to plug his nose to ward off the scent.

And Noctis found himself laughing at that display.

 _This_ was the enemy general that had thought himself good enough to convene with the Lucii?

Ravus must have noticed that Noctis was judging him harshly then, because instantly he dropped his hand from his face and admitted, "Not that I haven't been around much worse in Niflheim."

And with that, the two finally made it up to the vast opening before them, and tried to decide where to go next.

Before Noctis could give that thought much weight, he found himself being ambushed by something and forced to the ground.

He howled in agony, as the thistles around his face bit into him—and as the enemy's strong arms pushed onto his shoulders—while what appeared to be a gorilla snapped at his lips.

Noctis tried to use his legs—to rear back and kick at the creature's backside—but the bastard was mostly laying on his stomach, so Noctis couldn't even _reach_ it with his limbs.

Then, he heard some banging noises that reverberated all around him. And just when Noctis was about to give up hope, the grip that had been on him lessened.

And after hearing a certain gargling sound, Noctis found himself completely freed.

The brunet leapt up, and saw that Ravus had cut the mandrake's—as Noctis could now see that's what it was—knuckles, before then cutting its jugular.

There was even some blood from the kill that had ended up on his own favorite shirt, Noctis found—looking down at the skull design.

And feeling a bit childish, Noctis was about to complain to Ravus for it. But then he noticed two more mandrakes appearing just behind Ravus.

Noctis' adrenaline kicked in, and time seemed to slow to a crawl, as he summoned a gun and warp-struck just in time to shoot the monsters point-blank.

"Thank you," Noctis found himself saying seriously now, as he sobered up and realized Luna's brother had nearly just gotten killed in saving his life.

"Don't mention it," Ravus barked.

After that, when the both of them had gotten their bearings a bit, Noctis and Ravus were in a location that was pretty much identical to the one they had just left.

And while Noctis didn't want to act like a pussy, like he thought Ravus was somewhat being about the whole thing… he had to admit he didn't admire the hay-like area, either.

It reminded him of the time he'd unfortunately had to taste a tumble weed in Insomnia—because there had been one there, somehow, that had rolled right into his face.

Just the thought of it alone sort of made Noctis want to barf even now, but he held it back.

And instead of thinking about that horrible memory, Noctis shot forward and tossed some lightning into the sky—wisps of cheese puffs in the air to him, as he'd never been exactly fond of thunder—that stunned the mandrakes around them, and he thanked Ramuh for it.

Noctis hadn't wanted to fight more of the menaces—or the flans that had been rising up near them—so it really _was_ a miracle, that he and Ravus could just disappear past them now if they were fast enough.

But deciding to kneel down on the ground _amidst_ the pests, feeling suddenly inspired, Noctis found himself praying to Ifrit of all the gods.

And unbeknownst to Noctis, he was even doing it out loud.

Though Noct was fairly certain that Ifrit was the reason for all his suffering... He also wasn't big on the other gods at all, so maybe two negatives here could make a positive?

"Look," Noct uttered, as he held his hands in fists upon his knees. "I know you're not one for humanity... The whole reason you rebelled from the Six, I mean, is because you didn't want to die. And who can blame you? But likewise, can you try and watch out for _my_ friends, so they don't keel over? Specifically from them being hurt by MTs and stuff, because we fight those things a lot. I- I don't care about myself anymore, but I-"

Noctis found himself suddenly thinking about Prompto... and how the Iron Giant anomaly they'd just seen on the way to Lestallum had reached for him for some reason. And the Giant's hand wasn't _that_ different from an MT'S.

There was _something_ there, Noctis knew, as blood ran down his cheeks from the cuts there earlier.

Now if only he could put his finger on i-

"Speaking of MTS," Ravus said—his hair blowing in the wind and tangling in front of his face, to make him look a tad bit insane. "There's something about one of your friends you should probably know, Caelum... But not now. Now you've got to find a place to clean those cuts on your face, before they become infected."

With that, Ravus began walking forward—and Noctis followed after him, feeling for a moment like he was a young prince who had to hold onto someone's hand to understand anything—and they found themselves stumbling upon what other might have called a water paradise:

There were gorgeous waterfalls everywhere, that were very pleasing to Noctis' eyes, and right in the middle of the space was another haven.

Noctis smiled at the familiar sight, and thought of a certain blonde girl who also needed to be protected for a change.

 **Luna's PoV**

Luna dug her heels into her mount, and tried to not think about how she thought her legs were possibly bleeding-in trying to get her dear friend to go as fast as she was able to for hours now.

Really, Luna knew that she was being ridiculous and that Sing-Song was fine.

And even Prompto's amethyst beauty… was cocking his head to the side, as if to say Luna was now imagining a pain for herself that didn't exist for once.

If anyone was run-ragged at this point, after all, it was the chocobos themselves—as Luna, Gladio, Prompto, and Ignis hadn't _once_ stopped to catch a break since departing; and Luna could even feel Sing-Song slumping beneath her, for that exact reason.

And so Luna leaned forward and pet the darling's face—to let her know how appreciative she was of her service, and that they'd be stopping soon.

Luna could see towering flora flying past them now—that reminded her a bit of what branches from pine trees looked like, when they were disconnected from the source—as they made their way down an incline almost faster than she could bear.

As Luna felt like she was about to go soaring up and over the back of her mount now—with the momentum she was getting on this declining hill—she heard Ignis saying:

"Noctis _would_ pick some backwater place like this, where—despite his best efforts—there's still an innocent civilian nearby."

And the Oracle could now see the man that Ignis was talking about: he had a fishing rod in hand, and looked as though he was searching for a good place to go searching for some trout.

Lunafreya found herself growing concerned for the man—though she couldn't say for sure why—as she lost her grip on her mount and sprung up into the air, before falling stomach-first into the mud.

Luna's chocobo scampered away from the dungeon, and back in the direction of the cerulean waves they'd seen earlier—as did the boys' own chocobos—just as Eos and the earth collided together, in the form of Titan.

Gladio cursed and shuffled to stay on his feet the entire time the tremors happened…

Ignis jumped into the air so that he wasn't effected by them at all, and then landed back on the ground when they passed…

And Prompto was treated similarly to how balloon might, as he was violently projected upwards out of his control.

 **Noctis' PoV**

Noctis really had no idea where to go from the water portion of the dungeon, and it didn't seem that Ravus did, either.

Ravus sat down on the blue safe-spot that his sister had put up—near the water's edge—and he put his sword down, as if the process of carrying it had been physically draining him.

The man even ended up putting his scabbard down… and within it, Noctis saw a familiar sword peaking out.

Noctis almost lost it then and there—and a single growl did pass his lips, though Ravus seemed none the wiser to it—but the king reigned himself in, and decided to wait and see what developed.

After washing some of his lacerations in the nearby stream, and feeling much better for it, Noctis attempted to make small talk:

"…Speaking of straw, as we were earlier, you know whose hair looks exactly like that? That creep 'Ardyn Izunia's'. Do you know if he happens to have my car, or-"

Ravus peeked an eye open at that, from where he'd had both closed just a moment ago. And Noctis resisted the urge to throttle him, for being so nonchalant about something that meant more to Noctis than anything. "Do not attempt to go and get the Regalia back. It'll be a fruitless mission. I have it on word that Izunia turned it into scrap metal at the dump, when you refused to come get it right away."

Noctis had called his Engine Blade to hand before he could even think what the ramifications of his actions could be.

Looking at Ravus with a livid expression on his face, it was all Noctis could do not to slaughter Ravus then and there.

If he had apologized for the truth he'd just spoken, maybe it would've been _one_ thing... but how the fuck was Noctis supposed to believe that Ravus hadn't brought him here, _just_ so Ardyn could have the time to do exactly what he had to the last and best memory that he had of his father?

"And as for Izunia," Ravus spoke with red-rimmed and tired eyes—as he seemed not able to see the anger in his companion at all, which made Noctis almost feel sorry for him… almost—"Don't trust the man. He is not your friend. Now because of him, I have night terrors of a somewhat messy living room, with a round table in the middle and two... boys there, among other things.

"To be honest... I think I got the 'gift' to see this when I put your Ring on. And, perhaps, now your ancestors mean to torture me for trying that, with these visions they make me see... And yet I somehow know I wouldn't be seeing them at _all_ , were it not for Izunia's intervention.

"Oh, what a terrible fate it is—to come and care for your nemesis, because he reminds you of the teenager from your bouts of insanity."

Noctis wanted to listen to all of this; he really did (it all seemed kind of interesting and important... Even if there was an awful part of Noctis wanting to put Ravus down, in thinking that he'd just completely lost it), but he couldn't do it.

He had climbed up the rocks beneath the plummeting H20 fall—as Noctis thought he saw the correct way out of this location that way—but his foot ended up getting stuck beneath a certain boulder.

And when he tried to get it out, Noctis only succeeded in knocking _more_ rocks loose—so that it seemed like his foot was going to be crushed by them, too.

Already, Noctis could hear the bones cracking and he cursed.

He was about to try and use fire magic to try and melt the damn things, or even to ask Ravus for help...

But in that moment, Titan came charging in—and it nearly gave Noctis a heart attack when it happened; as he thought he'd have to fight the archaean again—and in a sudden explosion, all the earth that had been around Noctis completely disintegrated, and everything that had just been inside was now out.

Once Noctis got his wits about him, and shook some debris out of his hair, he prepared to thank the god for stepping in and stopping something as trivial as a broken ankle...

But then he noticed there was a massive Bandersnatch that had not liked having all of Eos thrown its way…

"Run!" Noctis ordered Ravus, as what might as well have been a dinosaur in Noctis' eyes came traipsing after them.

Noctis' swollen foot, thankfully, cooperated and he pushed the former royal's head down, as the creature tried to impale him with its tusks.

Then, Noctis grabbed Ravus and began pulling him towards the Tomb that he saw just in front of them.

But he was brought up short, when he saw people behind them—out of the corner of his eye—and heard familiar voices.

"So _that's_ what being blown out of a cannon feels like," Prompto said bravely, as he pulled a piece of shrapnel out of his hair.

Oh, gods... Had Noctis' friends _just_ gone through the underground entrance, when Titan had chosen to blow it up before disappearing?

...And if things weren't bad enough, Noctis now even saw a certain purple-haired asshole, with straw-like hair; the man was shooting at the beast—that was now raising its paws up in its fury—so that it thought it was _Prompto_ who was attacking him, and not Ardyn.

"I'm sorry to say, Prince," Ardyn said joyfully, just as the enraged monster tried to bulldoze Prompto.

"But I'm afraid that my act is now over. But perhaps it would not have had to be so, if you had just come to get your car, as you'd been meant to, but alas."

Now understanding that Ardyn really _had_ been a traitor all along, Noctis wanted to go after Ardyn with every fiber of his being—as the man began walking away on a cliff above them… but deep down, Noctis knew he couldn't do that.

Instead, he went after the Bandersnatch with his blade in hand.

Noctis aimed at the bulging neck, with the sword in one palm, and put his full strength into it… so much so, that his wrist felt weakened after doing that; and Noctis put the blade in his other hand before striking again.

The pest was sent somewhat off-kilter with Noctis' actions, so Prompto was now somewhat in the clear, but Noct knew that that would hardly be the end of the Bandersnatch's warpath.

Luna was coming Noctis' way now, while carrying her trident, and she seemed to be handling herself even better than he was.

And she looked like an angel, with the… wings that she had added to the back of her dress?

Luna's face showed nothing but determination; and she didn't give Noctis even a passing glance, as she alighted her spear and blasted at the wide shoulders of the enemy before her.

…And to say that the Bandersnatch lost its balance then, would've been an understatement.

It began freefalling to the ground against Luna's power, but even then it didn't falter in its anger.

It swished its tail Gladio's way—and the man just _barely_ dodged it, by holding a shield up to allow the raw power to somewhat ricochet just above his head.

And Noctis swallowed, when he saw that sparks were somehow created from that show… sparks that were now raining down onto the grass, to create flames.

"You worry about this monstrosity, Caelum," Ravus said, as he avoided falling over from a certain shockwave, by positioning his weapon just the right way. "I'm going to deal with Izunia."

Noctis paused; he'd been summoning some ice magic to douse the flames… but now he didn't know _what_ to do.

Ignis was nodding his head at him—so Noctis knew that that meant he really _should've_ been putting out the embers—but the Lucian king wondered if his time would be better spent fighting the strange hybrid in front of them.

Seriously, it reminded Noctis of a mix between a Behemoth and a dinosaur. And Noctis didn't want to risk it getting _too_ close to the chocobos, that were now far away from them—that Luna and the gang must have brought with them—if things started going badly, but…

Throwing his favorite weapon in the world at the massive purple torso that was now in his way, Noctis decided to ignore Ignis' silent request for the moment.

And Ignis, bless the man—Noctis thought—had picked up where he himself had left off, when it came to using that spell and was now getting rid of all the pyres himself.

Noctis kept jabbing the Bandersnatch in the neck, while he was at it.

He didn't know why... But Noctis had suddenly started to feel _bad_ about trying to harm this thing—to hurt _any_ thing, really; when had he become so soulless?—so against his better judgment, he was now only attacking with the butt of his blade. And he prayed that Ifrit would honor their deal and take care of the rest.

But Gladiolus didn't seem to like the idea of letting Ardyn go, either, for he had given up on the idea of the Bandersnatch and was also now chasing after him—his hand carrying his great sword over his back, as if he was getting ready to throw it like a ninja star.

 _No, please_... Noctis thought, as he noticed Prompto shooting blanks at the giant's nails—as if thinking that if they annoyed him enough, he would leave them alone like the Bandersnatch at Hammerhead miraculously had. _Please don't go where I can't protect you, Gladio. I think that if you go after Ardyn, I might not ever see you again._ _Just all of you stop being so reckless!_

"You know what your ice magic reminds me of?" Luna asked Noctis playfully, with a wild look in her eyes—as she twirled her trident in hand, and seemed ready to go and try to dissect the Bandersnatch's side, "That time we were playing a game with water balloons in Tenebrae, but dear sweet Maria kept accidentally dropping them on us by accident."

Noctis very much wanted to say then—as he felt the Bandersnatch coming his way, kicking up dirt that landed in his hands, that tethered him back to the here and now—that he remembered that day well:

That They had stood on "rocks", they'd made out of wads of paper, and that it had been that day he'd known he was in love.

But he couldn't say it.

Shock had completely taken Noctis over, as Luna stepped out in front of him—rationalizing that he was some kind of danger—and spread her arms out to try and shield him...

And she accidentally ended up making a core of energy _so_ powerful, that when the beast crashed into it it flipped him backwards—until he went flying towards where the chocobos were at… and someone else.

"Navyth!" Noctis saw his fishing buddy just in the nick of time, and warped to where he was at to try and push him out of the way.

He was successful in the endeavor, fortunately.

And seeing that the Carbuncle doll had, hilariously, found its way to this particular bank, Noctis got up—having a massive head-rush as he did so—and put the doll into Navyth's hands, and told him to get away and that he'd explain everything to him later.

Someone, though, must not have thought that Noctis and Navyth had made it after their fall.

Because in a snarky, yet aristocratic voice—that made Noctis think she talked about the weight of peace a lot—he heard the words, "Nuh-uh. No way, Izunia. We're done. Seeing how things are here, and preparing to fight a gutter prince for you was one thing... But an honest to gods fisherman just about being killed in this whole mess? Umm, no."

Emboldened by this person who seemed to be telling Ardyn to go fuck himself, Noctis found himself stumbling to where the Bandersnatch was lying unconscious—with the chocobos going wild around it—and just standing there.

A woman with gray hair was jumping Noctis' way now; and if her spear was meant for him or the monster, he wasn't sure.

By her words, Noctis would've guessed the monster. But at the same time, the pointy end seemed to be pointed at _him_.

And it was Luna who ended up breaking this tense moment, as she sped Noctis' way.

"Aranea?" the blonde questioned, with a hand held over her heart and an unreadable expression in her eyes.

The ashen-haired lady looked up at her name being called, clearly surprised to have someone know who she was in the vicinity.

"Do I know you?" Aranea asked Luna, with a hand on her hip and an annoyed look on her face.

Though it seemed to Noctis that this "Aranea" wasn't wasn't going to attack them, based on what she'd said a moment ago (and she certainly won points in Noctis' book for having about Navyth's safety), he debated if she'd change her mind about being a pacifist, if the Bandersnatch kicked her in the back… like it was now trying to do.

Noctis stepped forward, preparing to tell the woman just that.

But she sidestepped the attempt on her life without even realizing it happened, and just stared Luna down.

And Luna, at first, didn't end up answering Aranea's question at all.

Instead, she ended up doing something that amazed Noctis: she somehow _teleported_ —with white runes appearing around her, as she did so—and when she came back, she had the harpoon they'd come for in hand.

And as Ignis and Prompto tamed the last of the flickering conflagrations that had gotten out of hand, Luna shot the Royal Arm into the sky—and the Bandersnatch seemed to lose all interest in killing entirely, and followed after it.

Noctis was about to protest it... until he realized just how much of a losing battle this had really been:

He didn't need these damn things from the Lucii, anyway, if it just meant he was going to lose his friends.

"You- you probably wouldn't believe me," Luna said, a certain look coming over her face, as she seemed prepared to fight some demons that Noctis hadn't even known she had.

And Prompto must have felt the same way about the Luna situation, because he was hooting in the background before Noctis could even attempt to shut him down.

"Noct," the gunner said—quite gleefully jumping up and down, for whatever he was thinking—"what if this turns into one of those moments about girls that I thought were just a myth? Where she says one thing, but means another, an-"

"You probably wouldn't remember me, Aranea... Especially since I wore a brunette wig the one and only day we truly met. That moment was- was important to me. It was a day where I chose to be selfish for once, and thought about foregoing every thing I needed to do: Especially if it meant I could pal around with you all the time, like we did that morning, but anyway- I remember you, and probably always will. Just know that."

This "moment" she was talking about… Had Luna thought herself to be a lesbian once?

Noctis wouldn't have minded at all, if Luna had stopped to try and figure that out about herself before—for as she had just said, she rarely let herself stop and smell the sylleblossoms.

And Noctis knew where Luna's heart truly lied, anyway: her mouth moving incessantly against his the other day had been proof enough of that, and he smiled at that memory.

But if she _did_ ever change her mind about the whole thing one day, then he would let her go.

"Err... sorry. The only brunette I remember is a bigger girl in Lucis, who was trying to give herself an eating disorder once."

Wait a second... was this Aranea talking about Sol now? Who Noctis had _also_ actually tried to befriend at school once—which was shocking for him, he knew—to keep her from being so prone to suicide?

But before Noctis could question that, he saw Ignis throwing one of his daggers to Gladio, who was now jumping at the back of Ardyn's neck—empty-handed—until Ignis' favorite blade soared his way.

Gladio caught it just before it would've hit his own eye, and now he was aiming aiming aiming for Ardyn…

But just like that, the man disappeared as fast as he had come.

"Fuck," Noctis cussed—not even entirely understanding when he'd come to hate Ardyn so much, and to want his blood so thoroughly, but knowing all the same that he couldn't trust him as far as he could throw him… and that- and that he _should_ die.

Ravus, also seeming to realize the jig of going after Ardyn was up, landed on the ground beside Noctis with many holes in his outfit.

Despite his rage, and despite how kiddish he had been about Ravus in the camping situation earlier, Noctis found himself being truly worried for the man. "What-"

But Ravus silenced him, with just one look and then words:

"I remember, Caelum, when you and my sister watched a movie in her room once. You were supposed to be talking about your duties only, but Lunafreya let you be a bad influence on her for a time.

"There was a girl pretending to be a man in the film—where men would have killed her, if they had known that truth—and she got hurt in battle, and started to bleed.

"Most people watch it and think, 'If only the girl would not have unknowingly gotten her body examined for that wound: She would have been just fine.'

"But remember that Lunafreya said after that... that she did not care, and would have let _herself_ be killed either way. Never forget that, Caelum. Never forget it."

And before Noctis or anyone could figure out what Ravus meant by his cryptic speak at all, he was suddenly climbing the steep hill above them—so he could be higher up, and at a good enough speed, Noctis would later know—before launching himself off at a certain angle, so that he fell and bashed his head in.

Luna screamed—and called her now dead brother every name under the sun, as she demanded to know why he'd looked at the green cast on her before doing what he had.

Noctis held Luna in his arms as she sobbed, and tried to restrain her the few times she seemed to want to claw Ravus' eyes out for his betrayal.

And only when Luna was a little bit better—and Noctis had reluctantly removed his dad's sword from Ravus' corpse—did the group go search for another Tomb, that they ended up finding via sheer dumb luck (which was a good thing, because Noctis hadn't wanted Luna thinking the sword her now-deceased-brother had been carrying had been the only weaponry they found form his ancestors that day).

Perhaps they had found it through Navyth using the Carbuncle statue to send luck their way, since Noctis had saved his life.

As for Aranea… she had left sometime during the whole ordeal of Ravus killing himself; and this was something else Luna was beating herself up for, Noctis could tell—in thinking that the woman had left because of _her_.

Noctis assured Luna that that wasn't the case… and also that he had the strange feeling that they'd see her again.

"You're not as bad as _me_ , Luna. Like, I don't know what happened to my fishing buddy Navyth after today, and _I_ really should. I don't even know if I'll ever see him again now..."

But that did little to comfort Luna.

Nothing really did.

But Noctis didn't fault her for it at all.

...

Later that night, when they were all around a campfire—deep in thought—Noctis found himself saying these words, as he cupped his hands together:" I owe you all an apology... Especially you, Prompto, for the way I snapped at you: I shouldn't have left the way I did. I just couldn't bear the thought of anyone else dying because of me. But I- I just fail all the time. And Luna, I-"

 _I was also trying to find a way to save you_ , Noctis thought, but he didn't say it. He wasn't sure that he _deserved_ the luxury of defending himself anymore.

Did he really deserve anything?

Luna just sat silently with Pryna and Umbra on her legs—the two dogs had found Luna in her grief.

And save for when Umbra licked Noctis once when he had first found the dogs tonight, he hadn't left Luna's side even once.

Pryna, on the other hand, was spending quite a bit of time with Prompto.

"I don't- I don't know if Ravus is dead or not," Luna admitted.

And—though he knew he was exaggerating in his own head—it seemed to Noct that Luna hadn't spoken in _such_ a long time, that her lips might now bleed with the surprise friction of them suddenly having to come together to make words. "I mean, you were there- you all saw. When I tried to pick him up to bury him, he just disappeared. And I got the strange sensation that if I had had my staff in that that touched him, then that wouldn't have happened... At least not like it did. I think my brother is alive," Luna said, as she reached a hand out into the sky, and whispered a name—a nickname for her brother, perhaps?—as she seemed now stuck in one of her own memories.

Prompto looked at Luna sympathetically at this, while he fed the dogs some Mac and Cheese.

Ignis was fingering the Royal Arm they had all acquired, as his new earring fell over his left lobe with the action.

There was a hole in the bottom of the said "1" now, and Noctis could even see a bit of blood on the underside if Ignis' ear, and so… if the massive new piece of jewelry hadn't been where it currently was, Noctis thought there was a good chance Ignis' head could've been blown clear off by one of Ardyn's stray shots from before. And how he thanked the gods, that Luna and Iris' thoughtfulness had presented that.

"I truly don't mean to be insensitive, Lady Lunafreya," Ignis spoke, with his accented voice softer than Noctis had ever head it be before. "I know how you must be suffering, in possibly having just lost all of your family... I am sorry. But I must say something of utmost importance, that Gladio mentioned to me... It seemed to him that Izunia… was somehow summoning monsters.

"Why he was doing that, Gladiolus doesn't know; it's not like Ardyn even used them on us. But one such creature was a massive yellow and white one, with a devilish pink tongue... Something that could be problematic for you, should you see this animal, since we know what happened to you with the Gian-"

Gladio, surprising everyone, let out a loud grunt—as he pulled on some of the fabric of his Coleman chair, as if thinking that if he wrecked it they'd then have a reason to go to his favorite sporting goods store again.

Gladio seemed… unnerved. So Noctis went over to him and told him that it made no difference that they'd maybe just found out Ardyn was responsible for some of Eos' nightmares; they'd just destroy them like usual.

...And he entirely missed the look that appeared on Luna's face, as she realized that Ardyn, then, was the Usurper and the person responsible for whatever was wrong with her.

"How about tomorrow, we try and get Noctis to forge a Covenant—that way I can convince myself again that whatever that bastard has planned, we can go against it," Gladio said, squeezing Noctis' hand like a vice—for what Noctis could only guess was revenge for having at all thought that he needed comforting a moment before.

"Only if it's Shiva, like we discussed earlier," Noctis replied—as he looked pointedly at each of his brothers, and thought of Luna's well-being first again. "But it sounds like a plan to me... If Luna's up for it."

Noctis put his hand in hers, and had to resist the urge to kiss her neck to try, in vain, to sooth her.

Luna seemed to be pulling away from him, and Noctis could tell it.

Horribly, he wanted to complain that he was sitting at this campsite with its brown clay that he hated for her—as _she_ been the one to choose to stay at this particular camp sight for the long haul—but he didn't.

Instead, Noctis watched Luna smile amusedly at her dogs, that were now sleeping cutely on Prompto's head (Gladio was even trying to get a picture of it)…

Before she put one of the tips from the Shuriken they had just gotten onto her trident, and ordered with much power and seduction in her voice, "Ignis is going to wash the dishes soon, I know. You help him. Noctis, by getting water on them—and then scraping as much food off as you can with your nails, before giving them to him to properly clean."

And Luna got up just as Ignis raised his head at his name being called, and she disappeared into the tent.

Later, Noctis would see that she had taken the majority of the space in there, so that it was a downright hassle when they all—and the dogs—tried to settle in for some sleep.

...Just what was going on with them now? Noctis worried, when he eventually _did_ crawl into the tent and looked the sleeping Luna over some.

And why did it look like she was even doing a sign to ward him off in her sleep?

 **Author's Note: This chapter gave me so many fits: Mainly because I had a hard time balancing the Noctis and Luna PoVs (and I even wrote things out of order, which is different for me** , and then had to put it all into the correct sequence when editing **). And also because I was getting my places in XV confused, so I then had to rewrite some stuff when I realized I had made mistakes. But here it finally is!**

 **Also, I swear nothing weird is going on with Prompto in this story. His reactions to stuff all have to do with his knowledge about who/what he really is, that he's stilly trying to hide at this point.**

 **Speaking of Prompto, if it felt like there was less of him here… It was because I was trying to focus on Gladio and Ignis more, since last chapter had quite a few Prompto things. But he should be getting more attention again next chapter.**

 **…There's also nothing strange going on about Luna's attitude, either. She's not suddenly going to turn for the worst and hate Noctis, or anything crazy like that. She's just grieving in her own way at the end of this chapter, and that's all. But she'll be moreso her normal self next time.**

 **Anyway, please read and review and I'll see you guys soon!:D**

 **Edit: There's also a chance that Fanfiction removed some of my italics and some spaces between words. Sorry if that's the case, but I'm too tired to deal with it now:/**


	3. Chapter Three: Radiance

**Author's Note: There's something a bit NSFW in this chapter. But it's nothing too extreme. At all (it also doesn't go anywhere, and is even just implied), so I'm still keeping this rated "T" for that reason.**

 **Also… Luna will probably seem OOC in one instance in this chapter. But I'm doing it to give her flaws (as well as to keep her from being too perfect), and also to show that the stuff she went through after Niflheim took over her country DID have some sort of negative effects on her.**

 **Omen trailer!Noctis makes an appearance… kind of. So if you're confused why Noctis is acting so aggressive in one upcoming part, that's why.**

 **You guys will also probably hate Gentiana/Shiva here. But as she ends up explaining herself, you'll probably hate her less. Yeah…**

 **Chapter Three: Radiance**

 **Noctis' PoV**

Noctis woke up the next morning, to find fingers tangled within his hair.

And his first thought was that maybe Ignis was trying to quickly comb his locks, because there was some important meeting they needed to attend post-haste.

But then Noctis remembered that it had been a few months since he had had a home—and since he'd needed to really do anything princely—so that meant that-

"Luna," Noctis said, the answer coming to him as soon as he spoke it.

Noctis wondered if this was a hint that she no longer hated him for the whole Ravus thing…

And when he felt her lips pressing against his cheek, that seemed to be answer enough.

"I don't want you to get any wrong ideas here, Noctis. I'm only massaging your scalp, because I'm trying to get the oils in your hair to release and wash themselves... Seeing as how it's been a while since we've all gotten to clean up." (1)

Noctis resisted the urge to snap his fingers and say "drat", as his fantasy about having Luna look after him for no real reason seemed to go out the window.

Though he wondered if she was lying.

"We should go outside..." Noctis muttered, knowing that his friends were without... and that if they didn't leave the tent soon, they might start to talk:

It would be like the time that Gladio and Prompto had disappeared—because Gladiolus had wanted to wrestle the unwitting Prompto in the tent—and it had looked like something else to Noctis and Ignis, for a minute there...

"Why?" Luna asked, as she pulled away from Noctis and sat on her knees near the exit, as she moved to put her hair up in its usual do. "So we can go see Shiva, and I can feel pain through making a Covenant with her? ...If I haven't already done that with her. And I'm not sure that I have anymore."

Luna was walking out of the tent now, and Noctis was hot on her heels—as he gently grabbed onto his fiancée's wrist to halt her.

And goose bumps appeared on her hand, from where their skin made contact.

Both monarchs breathed heavily, in suddenly realizing why touching like this had been such a big deal in older times.

"Luna... my dear, are you saying that going to the Astrals hurts you?"

As it stood, Noctis had no idea where the "my dear" had come from. He sounded like his father, or something.

Either that... or like he was trying out a pet name for her.

But even though Noctis may have been head-over-heels in love with Luna, he promised himself he'd never turn into the kind of sap who called their significant other pet names.

He'd just been so _concerned_ , when she'd seemed to say that what she was doing might be harming her, that Noctis had wanted Luna to know at once that she was not alone... And maybe if she knew that was the case, perhaps she'd stop going to these places that just damaged her.

As Noctis peered into Lunafreya's face, he could see all the emotions that were passing over them:

And he somehow knew that what Luna was doing was having some sort of poor impact on her health, and that she was even about to lie about it.

Before she could begin forming the words to do so—and Noctis could tell she was about to—he leaned his forehead against hers (pushing her into a tree somewhat, as he did so), with his hands cradling her face, and whispered something that he hoped would make her realize why she had to stay with him, and away from the Astrals:

"Oranges, Luna: Anything with that citrus flavoring is your favorite thing in the world, isn't it? Actually, it's one of the few food preferences that we have in common.

"Now I need you to imagine with me all the fun we could have together, just in finding orange meals... let alone in other ways, if you stay with me, Luna. Orange chicken... people now trying to find a way to make chocolate and cheese work together, by adding orange to the mix….

"And what's even more, Luna, is that I've heard from my citizens that some of them want to rebuild Solheim. And why should I care about that, when I'm a _Lucian_ king, you ask? Because the first thing on their agenda to do, apparently, is to put an orange fountain there. Don't you want to see that? Lu-"

Luna was absolutely sobbing now, Noctis could tell; and she desperately tried to pull away from him.

And while he absolutely _hated_ to see her like this, Noctis knew that her dealing with all of this now was for the best.

"P-p-perhaps I'll only stay if we get more banana dessert stuff... I mean, dessert seems to be where are minds are at lately—partly because of our expedition for Prompto—so maybe it's destiny," Luna splattered, as she continued to cry, but reigned herself in somewhat.

Noctis smiled widely at this—as Luna seemed to be giving in to his desire for the both of them to be happy together—and their lips almost touched with the twitch of Noctis' mouth... but their coming together was interrupted by Ignis:

The man was coming up the slight incline, with a bucket in hand.

Straight to the point, when he saw them, Ignis announced just as Gladio and Ignis were hurrying after him. "I hate to interrupt... But Gladio was able to catch many fish with a spear today. And the only reason this is notable, is because he's no fisherman like you are, Noct. And I feel the only reason he was able to do this, was because the water had been... displaced. Oddly, even, and Pryna and Umbra lead us right to it."

"Yeah, Noct. Iggy's right when he says 'oddly displaced'. There are these strange... big flowers?—no, wait! They're actually pieces of driftwood!—making the waves rise up so close to the surface, that you can pretty much just reach right in from where you're standing and pick a fish up!"

Noctis tried to be interested in this concept his friends were telling him about—because they seemed to think that it was as interesting as the "Luna was cursed by another planet" stuff; and maybe it was and he was just somehow missing that fact—but instead all he could focus on was the fact he kept getting cock-blocked when it came to Luna.

Though Noct did, at least, recognize that a lot of it was his own fault.

But deciding not to just be another clichéd couple—who would just wait for another instance to come, whether it was destined to or not—Noctis pulled Luna into his arms, crashed her lips against his, and found the tongue that had tried to play with his some, when they were children (as they'd tried to figured out what this "French Kissing" thing was), was an expert at kissing now. (2)

Noctis didn't even care that his companions were seeing him, as he put a hand into Luna's hair and applied more pressure to her upper lip.

But while _she_ did kiss him back, she also began falling over—so that her feet ended up dangling over the ash from the campfire the previous night.

Luna ended the affair—to which Noctis tried to hide his disappointment for—by lightly pushing against his chest, and then blushing and stammering apologies to his friends, as she bowed.

"I am- I am so sorry for my fiancé and my behavior. Please forgive me, Sir Ignis. Especially since I feel that you and your friends got that fish for me, so that I can have a good meal in my depression. Is that, right?"

Noctis wasn't even surprised when Gladio came beside Luna and pounded fists with her, to say without words that she was right about her guess.

Feeling oddly disillusioned now, Noctis took the bucket of fish from Ignis and went to clean and cook the food:

Pryna and Umbra were hot on the king's heels, and he was glad for it: Some birds were showing up to say that they deserved the stuff themselves, and Pryna and Umbra held the catfish down with their paws—while Noctis cleaned them—so that the hawks couldn't fly off with the catch.

Meanwhile, the brunet heard Luna discussing how she would try asking Shiva if she knew what was going on with the water, since ice wasn't that far removed from H20.

And Noctis listened to all of this... Feeling kind of irritated with Luna:

For one thing, if he was understanding everything correctly... She wanted them to do something that was continuing to damage her.

...And with what was already going on, because of that other world cursing her… was now really the best time for her to help with his King of Light duties?

But what Noctis was really (stupidly) mostly upset about, as he almost burnt his fingers in the fire via his distraction? Was how Luna had acted like she hadn't wanted to be kissed by him.

Noctis hadn't been _too_ excited for the wedding before (as he hadn't trusted the Nifs, and had known that it was just their way of making his dad surrender), but now...

Now Noctis found that he really _did_ want to marry Luna, but he felt that she had changed her own mind about the whole ordeal.

Noctis remembered in vivid detail, when she had written to him just how she wanted to show him a pretty dressing gown she had recently gotten...

Because apparently Gentiana had bought her the nice new nightgown for her birthday, and Luna—in wearing it one night—had been unable to deny her feelings for him to herself anymore, and so she had told him just how she wanted to kiss him during that weakness.

And Noctis, having realized that he loved Luna right after she'd done that, had wanted to bring the entire situation of their relationship up with her.

But the next response he had gotten from her... She was back to being her typical Luna self, as if the other thing had never even _happened_ , so Noctis had never said a word back—thinking that Luna had changed her mind about him that fast.

Now, though… Noctis was convinced Luna felt for him.

And he thought he had to get the girl to admit it to herself—because she was way too repressed—even if he had to seduce he-

"Noctis, dear... If you char that fish anymore, it's just going to end up looking like a triangle—much like the top of my dress that I wore for the treaty signing."

"Speaking of the signing... do you happen to know if any Orangutans—err, 'Argentums'—go out of the city, or-"

"Yes, Prompto. I do think your parents got out: They would've been the ones buying cameras, that I saw."

Only when this exchange between Prompto and Luna (while the two picked flowers—in their boredom in waiting for the food, it seemed) was over, did Noctis begin thinking of Ravus' words about Prompto again and really start to consider them.

Passing the finished fish to everyone now, Noctis was just about to question his friend about it upfront, when Gladio came over and clapped a hand onto Noctis' shoulder.

"Hey, Noct? You mind if I talk to you about something?"

"Uhh... Sure, I guess," Noctis said uncertainly, sending a glance Gladiolus' way before heading off for the beach—and angling closer and closer to the black building that was nearby.

Noctis walked on the piece of embankment, trying to balance like a ballerina would—and almost having some kind of fun—when Gladio ended up saying, "You're trying to seduce that girl... And believe me. I get it. I wouldn't fare any better with Sania."

"Wait. Hold up. You want to fuck Sania-"

"But now isn't the right time. She's been through too much. And I know, that's rich coming from me—since I wasn't exactly kind to her when it seemed she was completely bent on self-sacrifice that first day, but-"

"No... I get it," Noctis relented, as he stopped moving. And he considered that he was being a pretty big brat, come to think of it:

Perhaps this was even his own _very_ strange way of grieving for Ravus... The two of them _had_ been friends once, when Noctis had first come to Tenebrae, after all. And people mourned in mysterious ways.

In fact… Though Noctis Lucis Caelum would never admit this to anyone... but it was somewhat that older prince who had inspired Noctis to like to fish—for Ravus Nox Fleuret had taught him how to easily gut them with a blade.

"It's just... hard," Noctis was admitting, despite himself, as he watched their chocobos from earlier get a drink of water out of the stream, and play in it some:

The way Zidaneschocobo seemed to be playfully biting Sing-Song was especially hard to watch, because it reminded Noct of all that he might have lost with Luna.

"When we reunited right outside of Wiz's Outpost, it was all I could've asked for and _more_ , Gladio. But now there seems to be a wall between Luna and me, and I _know_ it's my fault; and I wonder if this 'long-distance relationship' thing was doomed from the start."

"...Just give her some time, Noct," Gladio replied softly, which surprised the king, as he looked up from where he'd been eyeing his own hands in his pockets to meet his friend's gaze now.

But Gladio looked away in an instance—towards a crab that was climbing up a tree near them—and continued, while lost-in-thought, with: "If there was one thing my dad knew how to do, it was to wait. He had to give your father good counsel, I mean, and had to assess situations. Even if a punk seemed suspicious, and was making a scene, he couldn't just rough them up for looking at King Regis the wrong way.

"So, yeah: Timing was something my dad knew, alright, and it even applied to his relationship with Iris and my mom.

"When Grandma died, he knew just when was the right time to hold Mom, and when to let her do her own thing... I'm sure it'll be the same for you and Lady Lunafreya. You just need to figure out how to work around each other in person first."

"Gladio..." Noctis muttered, jumping down from his perch and picking up a handful of dark sand.

If he was going to try and probe Prompto for answers later, Noctis thought he might as well get this now, to try and make it a bit easier. The kid _loved_ to make sandcastles, after all.

But Noctis swiftly put it down, in realizing he needed to sort things out with his guard first.

Hissing, as memories of what Luna had said earlier came floating into his head, Noctis gritted his teeth—and ended up speaking in a much lower and dangerous tone than he knew he was capable of.

"Gladio, I'm so sorry. Luna... she told me what that bastard Drautos did to my old man, but she didn't tell me about yours.

"Fits, I guess, since she doesn't know what Clarus looked like. But anyway…I know what happened; and I'm sure you probably do, too.

"And though it was your dad's duty… he deserved better. All of the Lucians did. If only I could bring Drautos back, kill him a thousand times over, and-"

Noctis was silenced, when he felt a hand clap his shoulder roughly.

Looking up at Gladiolus' face, Noctis was shocked to see water sliding down from his tear ducts—to match Noct's own—that he tried to hide:

"There's no greater honor than what my father did, Noct. And while I appreciate the sentiment... Man up enough, to convince that girl of yours to live a better life. Okay? Okay."

There was absolutely no bite in Gladio's words at all. And Noctis knew the bit at the end was actually the bodyguard's attempt to be nice, and to let him know he'd appreciated what he said and didn't blame him for anything at all.

Noctis was even about to tell Gladio he'd grown soft. But before he could, he heard a scream that made his blood run cold.

"NOCT, HELP!", it bellowed.

And the prince began padding back the way he'd come, before he could even stop to wonder when Luna had started to call him "Noct".

What Noctis saw the moment he entered the camp space again, left him terrified.

MTs had found the group, and had stormed in while Noctis and Gladiolus had been away.

Ignis had his daggers buried deep within two of the automatons' chests—and Pryna and Umbra were biting some of the flag wielders' hands to try and help some—but Prompto...

He was laying unconscious in Luna's lap, and he looked as though he'd had his heart ripped out of him!

Blood covered his shirt in ugly tatters, and it stained Luna's white dress to make the most gruesome shade of pink Noct had ever seen

Getting on his hands and knees, and crawling to, perhaps, the two most important people to him in the world, Noctis found that he could barely get the words out. "Luna, is he-"

The princess shook her head, and Noctis breathed a sigh of relief. He could tell that Luna's attempts to heal Prompto were severely wearing her out, though.

"He was pretty much at death's door when I got to him—if I had reached him any slower... This is still going to take me a considerable amount of time, however, so please go help the others."

Noctis didn't have to be told twice.

He'd already lost enough, because of these Niflheim motherfuckers; and having nearly just lost Prompto made Noctis want to let out steam on _something_.

Gladio, Ignis, and the dogs had their opponents down to three—and Noctis wasted no time summoning the Armiger to assist in finishing them off:

For once, Noctis didn't have to concentrate on the painful feeling of the weapons being pulled out of him, or directing them with his mind.

Instead, he just noted they danced like a figure skater might on ice, and glistened like the blades on a hockey player's feet.

And just like that, the menaces were gone, and Gladio and Ignis wasted no time in running over to check on Prompto and Luna.

Noctis hung back; he fell to his knees, suddenly feeling the effects from using the Armiger.

He felt the blades from the weapon slice their way back beneath his shoulder blades—or so it felt like to Noctis—and though he'd, of course, never felt such a thing before and never planned to, the prince thought the feeling was similar to what a razor might feel like on one's tongue.

But he shook himself of his ridiculous thoughts, that were just making things worse (and that he couldn't prove), and ran to his friends.

Squeezing one of Prompto's bloody wrists in his hands—because he seemed to be reaching for something—Noctis asked gravely, "What happened?"

And as he did, Noctis thought saw a quick vision in his head of a horned creature, and static—and the aforementioned beast seeming to try and clear the haziness from his eyes for him—but with much effort, he ignored it.

"I don't know how to say this exactly, Highness... but Prompto is from Niflheim. And what's more than that, is that... he was supposed to be an MT, I guess. Horrific, isn't it? If turns out that we've been fighting things that were once human all this time.

"But it was Lady Lunafreya who figured this all out—and she got Prompto to show her his barcode- anyway: just then, some of these prats decided to descend.

"The band on Prompto's arm fell off completely, and showed his barcode; and they must have thought he was a rogue one of them, because faster than I could blink, they had snuck up on Prompto, and-"

Though Ignis had kept it together during most of his speech, he broke down during the last part of it—tears staining his glasses the ugliest gray that Noctis had ever seen.

And Noctis, for his part, felt like Ignis was speaking to him from very far away; it was as if Noctis was now trapped in a swirling vortex, and couldn't even _hope_ to find his way out of it.

Just too much was happening too fast.

"Prompto, if you die on me, I'll kick your ass," Noctis said with a sandpaper-y voice, just as Gladio insisted, "Let me lend you some of my strength, Lady Lunafreya," as he gave her one of his large hands to squeeze, on the off-chance that the pain of doing what she was got to be too much for her.

There was so much light coming from Luna now—as she desperately tried to heal Prompto; and Noctis heard some sound like an animal dying from somewhere, as she did it—that he thought she might create some sort of Super Nova.

And was he seeing things... Or were there some strange, almost peanut shaped, yellow wisps now coming from Prompto?

When Luna also seemed to note them, her face grew more serious than Noctis had ever seen it be before, and then the wisps were gone.

And when she made them disappear, Noctis could see that the water deep within the ground began seeping upward... But Luna's feet, unlike everyone else's, didn't look like they were getting wet at all... Was this because she already appeared to be drenched, because of the mysterious status ailment on her? Noctis tried to puzzle out.

No, wait!

As Noctis gazed at Luna now, she looked as though her eyes were going milky white. And was that a yellowish- orange streak he saw being painted in Luna's hair, in the shape of the peanut? And there was some blue there, too?

"Luna!" Noctis bellowed, completely alarmed, as what happened to her locks did, and she passed out.

Noctis remembered stories about people's hair turning completely white prematurely—from some kind of terror they'd endured—and he wondered if the same kind of thing had just happened to his Lunafreya.

The instant she had gone unconscious, Prompto had woken up—uttering an earth-shattering cry, proving that he was still in a lot of pain. And from his peripheral vision, Noctis could see Ignis helping the... the-would've-been-MT to drink an Elixir—and Noctis, likewise, tried to stir Luna.

Holding her in his arms, his heart against her heart, he began shaking her body—and his own shifted as he did this—as he urged loudly with all the strength that he had within him: "Don't you _dare_ leave me like this, after I just got you back, Luna! Don't you _dare_! I want to experience all the good things with you, of course…

"But right now I'd even take the bad—if it means you'll live. I need to see more of you hating me more, because of what happened to Ravus. I need you to maybe leave me for that Aranea chick. But I need good moments with you, too, come on, Luna. Come _on_!"

"Noct," Gladio sighed, when droll chose that moment to slide down Noctis' chin, to reach his chin: Noctis had thought that he was over the ability to get so emotional by now. "You look like you're trying to shimmy down her body and it's disrespectful, damn it! Will you stop? She's gone! Let her g-"

But before Gladiolus could finish the sentence, Luna's eyes fluttered open.

...

A little while later, Noctis found himself sitting near a campfire with his friends again—wondering just what he'd owe Ifrit for it—as Luna leaned against him, with her head on his shoulder—her hair (that seemed to be normal again) falling out of its bun, as Prompto recounted his tale.

"You guys would have never judged me for any of this, I know now," Prompto whispered so quietly, Noct could barely hear him.

He also seemed to be making a conscious effort not to look at his barcode, Noctis spotted.

And if Luna didn't now have a leg draped over his stomach, Noctis thought he might have gone over to his best friend to comfort him about that.

...Perhaps.

It was hard for Noctis to choose between his first real friend, and the beautiful woman he loved more than life itself—who was now laying on him.

Noctis did make sure to send Prompto a sympathetic look, however, and tried with his eyes to direct the others to do the same.

But Luna looked like she was about to fall asleep; and Noctis found that he couldn't fault her for that at all.

"Like, Luna was _so_ awesome about all of this—in the brief nano-second she found out. So I know my best buddies would be the same way. Especially since I had no control over this at all..."

But though Prompto was saying the words, Noctis could tell that he didn't exactly believe them in his _heart_ , as his lips trembled.

"Of course we wouldn't have thought less of you, Prompto," Ignis supplied.

And there was something in Ignis' eyes, then, as he squinted them—that had Noctis thinking of the injury he himself had sported in Tenebrae, all those long years ago.

"One can't choose to be born, or the situation surrounding said birth. It's why I'm so glad that shaming bastards is something only of the past now. And really, it's quite amazing how you escaped the facility as an infant and somehow made it to Lucis," Ignis concluded.

There was silence for a heartbeat. And in that silence, Noctis felt some of the embers getting to him—as the flames rose up high and took on a green color.

He tried to discreetly bat some of the stray pieces, and the smoke, away from Luna and even somewhat Prompto—thinking that the clogging stuff couldn't be good for their health, after what had just happened.

But more than anything, Noct thought he was making a fool of himself for no gain. So he sat back down, and tried to pretend nothing had happened.

And thankfully, everyone _did_ seem too wrapped up in the conversation and overlooked it.

"Yeah, I guess it is, huh? But to be honest with you all... I didn't even _remember_ any of this until recently. And that's why I got so mad at you when you were ordering us around earlier, Noct... Because I would've been commanded to... forced to be an MT, if things hadn't been different."

"And I'm guessing it's why you didn't want us to find Noct by using technology, right? Because it reminded you of some of the Empire's insane contraptions?" Gladio cut in, in one of the gentlest tones that Noctis had ever heard from him before.

Subconsciously, Noctis' nails dug into his hand a little bit—as he wondered why Gladio could never be that upstanding about _him_.

And while that happened, Noctis tried to piece together everything that had happened that he hadn't been there for… and mayhap even some of the things before that.

What? Was the Empire kidnapping babies, and somehow turning them into the "automatons"?

If that _was_ the answer—and it sounded to Noctis like it was—then that meant everything they'd been fighting all this time, had been-

It was just like Ignis had been saying earlier.

And Noctis felt sick (though he tried not to show it, as he didn't want Prompto to get the wrong idea).

And he swiftly regretted his prayer to Ifrit about killing MTs...

Running his hands through his hair in a very much agitated manner, Noctis couldn't keep his old bias about thinking technology should _never_ have existed from popping up again.

But that was the last thing he needed to say right now, he knew.

He also thought it best to keep his "Niflheim scum" comment to himself, seeing as how it turned out Prompto was from there…

"And this is why you almost called your adoptive parents 'orangutans', isn't it? Because even though they're… not like you. You were thinking, at the time, that if we found out about you… We'd see you as nothing more than an animal. Or worse. Weren't you?"

It had been Luna who had said this.

And as she did, Noctis felt himself being blown away by her voice and perceptiveness—as he always was.

…But he still had to resist the urge to kiss Luna on the forehead, and remind her that she should have been saving her energy.

A grasshopper had just jumped on her, after all—that Noctis quickly shooed away—because he knew that she was deathly afraid of the things.

And having what could have been a panic attack, if he hadn't stopped it—on top of her possibly wearing herself out again, by thinking on heavy things and forcing herself to speak—was the opposite of what was good.

But in seeing how much better Prompto straightened up at the point that Luna had said that, Noctis found that he couldn't regret her actions.

And he squeezed her hand in his own.

"Y-yeah-yeah, that was why I said that, Luna. But anyway... Now that I know you guys all understand—and thank you for that, by the way-I'm going to make up for not telling you all before, and defeat as many MTs as I can… or something."

"Uhh, no, Prompto," Noctis stated, digging out his phone and beginning to play King's Knight—as the prince thought that a normal setting was exactly what Prompto needed right now. "You don't owe us a thing. And if anything, _you_ should relax some and let _us_ handle things, since you've been suffering so much... And also talk to us, if fighting them gets to be too much for you."

"Oh... okay! Let's begin keeping on keeping on again in the morning, then" Prompto agreed, whilst Gladio and Ignis began laughing at his statement.

But Noctis could tell from the warmth in Prompto's eyes, and the smile on his face, that he was happy again.

And so Noctis smiled to the sky himself.

...

That night, Noctis ended up sneaking into Luna's tent (an extra one that they had all ended up giving her, when Noct had remembered he'd stored an extra one in hammer space at the start of their journey), after he was sure the others had gone to sleep.

He didn't plan on doing anything kinky with Luna—or even thinking about it, really—but he just wanted to hold her after today; and he thought that Luna might like the idea of it, too.

She heard him right when he entered the tent, her eyes snapping open before she instantaneously calmed down.

And Noctis found himself dreading what she might have gone through in the years they were part.

"Hey," Luna whispered, during the juncture he came to lay beside her, and nudged her face with his own somewhat.

...Noctis really didn't know what he was doing, when it came to the "being affectionate with your significant other" deal, but for some reason he was thinking acting like a cat was the answer to the dilemma.

The two of them situated themselves, so that Luna was more or less sitting on her side—with her head and hands on Noctis' chest.

And running a hand through her hair, as Luna closed her eyes again, Noctis found himself softly asking the two questions he'd been wondering all day. "What were you saying about the Covenants earlier? And why won't you give me the Ring of the Lucii?"

That got Luna's attention.

And she moved so that she was sitting across from Noctis now.

There was clear lust in her eyes, that Noctis thought he was probably matching with his own expression to her.

Luna extended her hand outwards, and down down down it went—but Noctis caught it before it reached its intended destination.

He looked at Luna with much agony shining in his irises, as he pondered why these were _such_ two big topics... That Luna would seemingly take drastic measures to try and distract him from them.

"Do you really want to talk about this now, Noctis?" Luna questioned, her accent sounding much more seductive than he had ever heard it be before.

And that was saying something, because sometimes when he heard the Oracle having to endorse foods on TV that she really didn't like... He thought she was, maybe, focusing on her feelings for him—in order to act so turned on by the stuff.

"Yes, Luna. We're having this conversation now. And you can drop the seductress act. That's not you, and you _know_ it."

"No, it's not," Luna agreed, as she slumped down and put her hands on her knees.

She couldn't even look at Noctis now.

And putting a hand on her shoulder to try and make her feel better, Noctis ignored the electrical current that passed through him when his hand touched her shoulder—and just how much he wanted to jump her bones—and uttered, "Luna, you don't have to feel ashamed about it."

 _If you did, I would also have to—because I wanted to seduce_ you _earlier_.

"But I just stopped you because I'm scared for you. And please- _please_ tell me what's going on. I get the feeling that it's extremely important."

The zipper on Luna's tent jingled a little bit at this query; and Noct resisted the urge to think that a bear was trying to get in on them, and instead only paid attention to the woman that he admired so much.

Finally, Luna said in a very exhausted sounding way, "I refuse to give you the Ring of the Lucii, despite what the gods want, because I don't want to see you meet your destiny yet, Nocti- Noct."

In the way that Luna had said that, Noctis had been able to guess what Luna was keeping from him… and what maybe people had been keeping from him his entire life.

...Was he fated to die, then?

In thinking about what his ancestors had done to that Nyx person—and the way his father had always looked at him—Noctis couldn't think of any other solution there might have been to the problem.

And even if he hadn't been raised like a pig for slaughter… Noctis thought that messing up and having prayed to Ifrit for help, probably would have killed him eventually.

"Noctis?" Luna ventured now; and there was a tone in her voice like what one might have, if they thought their terminally ill loved one was threatening suicide.

And speaking of that... now that he had learned the truth, Noctis supposed he probably should've been more upset about it, and perhaps even _livid_ at Luna.

This _was_ his worst fear come true, right? The equivalent of inheriting the burden of the Wall, but living an even _shorter_ life than his dad had had in doing that.

"N-N-Noctis," Luna stuttered. "Do you- do you-"

"Do I know what you were getting at? Yeah, Luna. I figured it out, alright."

"I won't let it happen, Noctis," Luna assured him now—grabbing onto her lover's hand, and squeezing it over her chest. "I'll try and find a way to save you. I mean; it can't be over for us yet. We still have more orange and banana desserts to find, right?"

At that, Noctis couldn't help but to laugh (Luna did, too), and to feel the slightest bit better about everything.

He remembered well the conversation they had been having earlier in the day—what felt like a lifetime ago now—and he was also recalled how the two of them going to get banana Jell-o for Prompto had been one of their most fun adventures as a couple yet.

And looking at Luna with pure Eros in his smile, he placed a kiss to her forehead before saying: "I love you, Lunafreya Nox Fleuret."

And after she must have guessed that he was seemingly done giving his affections to her crown, Luna pulled Noctis' face towards her own for a collision of their lips and souls.

 _This_ was what he was talking about.

It wasn't just their lips _barely_ whispering against each other this time—as they spoke to each other so closely—but the kind of contact that he'd always _dreamed_ of for Luna and himself.

Noctis felt like he was getting drunk off of it:

Especially when she went for his lower lip in the kiss. It was only certain people who ever did that.

And for some reason, it turned Noctis on in realizing that Luna was one of them.

But still being very much the gentleman, Noctis pulled himself away from Luna before things could get too hot and heavy between them—even though it burned him greatly to do so.

But who went to bed with someone right after the first, technical, kiss?

Noctis respected Luna too much to do that... Since he had the awful feeling that Luna had been sexually abused in the past, and _that_ was the reason that she'd been trying to seduce him to get what she wanted earlier.

So lying back down again, Noctis pulled Luna down to him—so that her back and head was resting against his pectorals.

And putting his index finger to his lips, he hinted that they should do his favorite pastime now: sleeping.

...

Oddly enough, Noctis hadn't thought about how badly his leaving Luna's tent would look to everyone in the morning.

Gladio kept grinning at Noctis widely, seeming to think that his liege had finally lost his virginity.

Prompto blushed whenever he looked Noctis' way, no doubt because thinking of him and Luna like that made Prompto imagine all the things that he wanted to do to Cindy.

And Ignis... Looked pretty disgusted: It was that reaction Noct couldn't figure out, since Ignis—for a while now—had been showing interest in Iris…

Maybe Ignis was ace? Noctis tried to figure out.

When Luna was out of earshot—for having gone to see the bird that Pryna and Umbra had brought to her that morning, and seemed intent on keeping with them, but without hurting—Noctis said for what felt like the millionth time, "I'm telling you guys: Nothing happened. I checked on Luna because I was _worried_ about her; and then we fell asleep. That's it. Don't you think if something more had happened between us, I'd be bragging about it to you guys?"

That last part was a complete lie, but Noctis didn't think that his friends needed to know that:

He just felt the strange need to protect Luna's reputation, all of a sudden...

Not that sleeping with your fiancé was any kind of offense at all. But there was a small part of Noctis that feared his friends resented Luna for having lived in a place that had been overtaken by the Empire.

And if there _was_ a bias there, he didn't want them to think that Luna was loose—or anything like that—to maybe add to their Niflheim hatred.

"At the end of the day, Noct, what you do or don't do with your charming bride-to-be is your business: I believe I even said as much before. But I'm just nervous that Lady Lunafreya being here is starting to distract you from your duties, is all."

 _You have got to be kidding me_ , Noctis wanted to snap. _I just found out that I'm going to_ die _—and for all I know, you could be well aware of that—so you could let me have time with my girlfriend, at the very least?_

"If anything, Ignis, I think we've been doing _too_ much lately. I've been through _too_ much these days. _Please_ let me have this—and don't take it away from me, just because you would never want such relations with Iris," Noctis sniped, as he furiously took a bite out of the toast that Ignis had given him earlier in the morning—and realized that by having just smart-mouthed him, _toast_ might end up being all that he'd have for a _while_.

"…Wait, _what_?" Gladio demanded—stopping from cleaning his sword, as he had just been doing, and now ready to get off the topic of Noctis' love life and onto the one he'd just heard about his sister!

Ignis just pinched the bridge of his nose—when it seemed like Prompto and Luna would now be dragging the dogs and the bird over to everyone now—as he made his case: "It was just a warning, Noct. Nothing else. I'm just saying… And I would've _thought_ you might have wanted to check in on Prompto last night, I mean."

 _'Cept Prom doesn't like people checking over his body, even when he's injured, and I guess now we know why. So there would've been nothing I could do. And more bizarre—possibly life-threatening—stuff is happening with Luna, anyway._

But before Noctis would have had to find a way to put all of that into better words, Luna ran his way and exclaimed excitedly, "Noctis, this bird is from Bahamut! …How he was able to send it to us when he's still in the Crystal, I don't know. But he wants 'The King of Light' to be able to fix things with his friend 'Navyth'.

"So all you have to do is write a correspondence to him down, give it to the pigeon, and it will take the message to wherever this Navyth is." Luna beamed gorgeously—as she finished saying this, and Pryna jumped up to lick her chin.

Luna giggled for the contact.

"Navyth?" Noctis choked out. Trying to figure out just what to say, because he _had_ promised the guy an explanation… But what could he even tell him?

That he'd just happened upon a Royal Arm by accident? And because of that, it had caused the Bandersnatch to go mad… As well as Niflheim people near him to think he was the deceased Prince Noctis, and to attack him for that reason?

In the end, Noctis found himself thinking that that excuse was probably good enough.

And ripping a page out of the lover's notebook, he wrote everything he wanted to say down on it and gave it to the bird: Pryna and Umbra charged right after it, preparing to outrun it and show it the correct way.

"It's all well and good that you want to help Noct out in this way, Lady Lunafreya," Prompto said now—picking up some sand off the ground to hand to her, as if he wanted to make a sandcastle now and wouldn't mind Luna's help with that…

Noctis smirked. It looked like he'd been right before, to think that Prompto could mayhap easily be bribed with the stuff.

"But... shouldn't we be doing something to help you? Your brother Ravus, he- Do you want us to maybe conduct a funeral for him? I know what it's like to lose someone.

"I didn't know my first adoptive mother that well... because she died pretty soon after she and my dad adopted me. And then eventually, Dad married someone else. So I remember that mom the most. But my first adoptive mom still meant a lot to me, if for no other reason than the fact she gave me a chance, and I miss her a lot. You know?

"But if you don't want us worrying about your brother, there's also _you_ to consider. Your affliction's mostly gone now, which I'm thrilled about—and I'm sure Noct is even moreso—but when you were healing me... I thought I saw something else off about you: like you were walking on water… Lady Lunafreya, just what's going on with you?"

Noctis could tell that Gladiolus got a bit misty-eyed in hearing all of this; and he looked up towards the sun, to make it look like it was that that was making him squint.

And Ignis just seemed proud of Prompto—for which Noctis tried to puzzle together if it made Ignis even _happier_ that he'd picked up Prompto's phone up for him, the time that he had snapped at him.

But everything Prompto was saying… they were also thoughts that Noctis had been having for a while now, but he'd been afraid to voice them:

He didn't want to hurt his fiancée, in speaking of Ravus, for one thing.

And as for her strange condition... Noctis was somehow scared he'd jinx it and make things _worse_ if he brought it up again.

Holding his breath, Noctis waited for what Luna might say now.

But she just smiled and ruffled Prompto's hair some, before looking off into the distance. "Thank you, Prompto. I appreciate that greatly. More than you can ever know...

"As for Ravus, I know my brother's not dead, so I won't mourn for him until I need to.

"And as for myself... I don't know anymore, either. It's a mystery to me, too. As things have now changed, my old theory seems to be out the window.

"And it- it makes me panic something fierce, I shan't lie, but I _will_ still say, that we should move forward and deal with what comes as it does. That's just the way I am—how I want to be, even—and I see no other solution, anyway."

"Lady Lunafreya, you speak as eloquently as ever. But hold on at this stage, before you lose the gods' favor."

Noctis, unable to help himself, hissed at the inclusion of the new voice into the conversation—that was just behind them.

He knew Gentiana well, of course... Well, if knowing her the little bit he had in Tenebrae really counted.

But he didn't like the way she had snuck up on them all like this.

Actually, the way she moved reminded the monarch a lot of that sleaze ball Ardyn—so he supposed he couldn't be blamed too much, for nearly putting The Sword of the Father to the Glacian's throat.

It was clear that Gladio had had similar ideas about Gentiana sneaking up on them, because he had one of his great swords trained on her abdomen—and Noctis couldn't tell if it was blood being drawn from its placement, or just one of the red flower markings that she wore on her dress.

Prompto was hiding behind Ignis again, of course, while Ignis had put himself into a defensive position.

And Luna... She was politely bowing to the woman she had known for many years, as she remarked: "Gentiana—no, Goddess Shiva—it is so good to see you. I was about to leave with Noctis and our friends to try and come find you, but I should have realized you would beat me to the punch—as omniscient as ever—and I can't thank you enough for it, Your Radiance."

Gentiana's frown turned upside down, and she replied with a: "Come, let me look at you: my darling messenger, who has forgotten answers true," as she indicated with her hand for Luna to come forward.

…There was something about the way that Gentiana had said what she had, however, that Noctis _despised_.

He couldn't put his finger on it, exactly, but he recalled Luna the previous day saying how she couldn't remember if she'd already had a Covenant done with Shiva or not…

And now... as that woman raised Luna's chin and looked her over—with eyes still closed—like somewhat might examine a bin they meant to put things into, Noctis couldn't help but to think that Shiva might force a _second_ Covenant onto Luna.

And if that were to happen... would it kill her?

When Noctis had figured out what his own story was the previous day, Luna hadn't at all hinted that it was the same for her.

So perhaps it wasn't—and Noctis was banking on that fact—but surely having to go through that ordeal with the same god twice would be too taxing for the body; and so Noct found that he was near to not letting Luna do it.

"Uhh... Does she always talk like that, Dude?" Prompto asked, whispering conspiringly—in what he probably _assumed_ was a completely neutral tone, but was really anything but.

But it was Prompto's question—for which Gentiana tilted her head the slightest bit, and Luna just smiled at Prompto in a strained way—that Noctis was able to reign himself in, and remember that Gentiana always talked in riddles:

So the way she seemed to almost be smart-mouthing Luna with them now didn't necessarily mean anything... or so he hoped.

"She does, man," Noctis said just as "silently".

Stretching now, the prince took his shirt off—it was getting hot—and decided to take a leaf out of Luna's book from a few nights ago: "If you'll excuse me, I'm going to wash some of these dishes... I know they're all plastic. And don't matter. But since we're not taking them with us—and there's no trash bin nearby, so we're just going to litter—the least we can do is not make people have to smell the caked on food, if they come by here."

Gladio, Ignis, and Prompto all shared a look at this—Gladio and Ignis in particular—but they let their liege go without a word.

Everyone did, for that matter.

And Noctis was taken aback by it somewhat—as he'd thought that Gentiana would want to talk to him, since he was the King of Light... but apparently not.

Noctis was just about done getting some of the spaghetti sauce off of a plate—and thinking of getting Talcott something that looked like the Royal Arms, or these forks, or something else that was like the two as a surprise—when he heard Luna's cry.

Noctis was running faster than his feet had ever carried him before.

He was getting so _tired_ of this kind of thing.

Noctis wasn't even sure when he'd made the conscious decision to _move_.

Just one second he'd been sitting there, thinking of Talcott, and the next—when he heard Luna's cry of distress—he found himself right beside her.

Later, Noctis would wonder why he was reacting so easily to this sound: He knew it was because he loved Luna, of course. That wasn't even a question.

But until yesterday, he'd never even heard her adult shout before—and he still wasn't exactly used to it—so why his heart seemed to understand so well the sound of his beloved's distress, Noctis didn't know. But he was grateful for it.

"What did you DO to her?!" Noctis threatened, when he had Luna cradled safely in his arms, as he started Gentiana down for all he was worth.

This time, Noctis didn't have one of his swords trained on the woman. But he knew that in just his voice alone, he was promising her a life of pain—much more than he had so before—if she didn't start talking now. He didn't give a _damn_ if she was one of the goddesses who ruled over him, or not. He would hunt her down to the ends of Eos, if he had to.

"Noct-" Ignis warned, with a clear edge to his voice.

But Noctis wasn't having any of that.

"Prompto, watch Luna. Please. That isn't me ordering you as your king, but me _begging_ my best friend in the world to do this one thing for me. Luna, she's- She's broken out into a cold sweat. I don't know what it means, but I don't think it can be good. After stories about my mother-"

He trailed off, unable to finish the thought.

Gladio punched his fists together and let out a "heh", clearly excited that his liege was finally stepping up as king and doing the things that mattered most to him.

Ignis just sighed.

But before Noctis could even process what he was doing, he found himself lifting Gentiana up by her throat.

"Noct!" This time it was Prompto cautioning him.

But as Luna took that moment to let out a shuddering breath, Noctis couldn't be bothered to remember proper etiquette when dealing with a god.

And if they _themselves_ were scared of Noctis, some birds chose then to fly away from their tree—tweeting desperately to each other, as they did so.

"King of light, if you do not stop, despite-"

"Stop giving me your rhymes, I don't care about that, Gentiana! No, _Shiva_!

"Look, I liked you when I was a child. I still do, probably. But why would you do another Covenant with Luna? WHY?!

"And don't tell me you didn't, because I KNOW that's what happened here! No one could take that! No one! Not even me—who you seem to think is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

"What happened to all the 'it is so good to see the king and Oracle getting along so well' crap? If it was up to you, I might not ever have to worry about that again—because on _your_ watch, Luna would die.

"Fix her! Now!"

And to make sure he'd made his point abundantly clear, he threw Gentiana into the brothers' tent, that they had yet to take down for the day.

"Noctis, please-" It was Luna who was begging now. And that alone cleared Noctis' head some.

Noctis ever so slowly began realizing what he'd just done: He'd possibly angered a goddess, who might now decide she didn't give a _damn_ about the prophecy anymore and obliterate them all with one thought.

But fortunately, Noctis got the sense that wouldn't be the case.

Despite what he'd just done, and despite how her feathers might have gotten ruffled for it, Shiva still clearly valued humanity and his quest—for getting back to her feet and dusting her dress off, she explained, "Your father was right to send you with your friends, so a certain thing in you will not begin."

Luna was kneeling on the ground now, as she tried to regain her strength.

And Noctis had to resist the urge to go over there and to kneel with her—as in Lucian weddings, the bride and groom both did that while reciting their vows.

And since Noctis loved Luna every bit as much as a husband loved his wife, he found that maybe his mind and heart were telling him to marry her right now. Despite the fact that it made absolutely no sense to.

"I did not mean to harm the Oracle, this is true. But someone has tampered with the timeline, and made things anew. Since she remembers not, nor do I. So I thought I'd make sure her Covenant had, in fact, been done—and the changes hadn't made it say 'bye'."

"I understand," Noctis said, going as far as to helping Gentiana up now. And then bowing to her so low, he thought he might as well have been kissing her feet. Maybe he even should have been, to make up for what he had done to her.

"But none of you Six seem to realize just how the things you do can effect humanity. I feel like Luna's barely holding on now because of you, and hopefully she'll recover… But you could have at least _asked_ before you did what you did.

"Because I'm assuming from the sound that she made... That you tried to make the Covenant this time without even _talking_ to her about it at first, or getting her consent at all; you just assumed that she would say 'yes', because Luna's good like that. But she's also a _person_ , and even she has her limits."

As he finished his speech, Noctis had half-expected to find himself glaring at Gentiana, Shiva, or whoever she was again.

But he just felt numb, more than anything else. And he loathed that with every fiber of his being, because this serious talk about Luna was _not_ something he needed to seem apathetic about.

But as it happened… the world was taking too much out of him lately. And Noctis was beginning to realize that if he didn't just cool his emotions to some of it, he'd probably go insane.

"Well said, King of Light," Gentiana answered, turning into her Shiva self—as a bright light appeared and her appearance and clothes seemed to dissolve, only to make something finer appear there with a flash of gold: before radiance was completely in front of Noctis' face. "And for this, I will aim to help you with the things you've altered. I will try to make Ramuh, once again, the understanding father."

And Gentiana kissed Noctis on the head—and for a time, he thought her entire demeanor just now had just been an act: that she meant to kill him for the way he'd behaved, _after all_ —but the peck seemed like it had nothing to do with her ice magic.

Instead, after Gentiana had pressed her lips to his flesh... Noctis felt his head clearing, and it felt lighter than he could remember it being in a long, long time.

It even almost made him wonder if he'd had a mental illness his entire life—that he hadn't even been aware of—and that it had just been healed. But Noctis didn't think that was true.

Still... That being said, Gentiana had seemed to repair _something_ about him.

Noctis just wished that she had tried the same thing on _Luna_ —because she seemed to becoming more and more of a mess.

Going over to where Prompto was still watching over Luna, Noctis picked his girl up bridal style, and buried his face in the crook of her neck for a minute—before looking at her face.

"Come on, Luna. If I read my map correctly before, there's supposed to be some sort of factory near here that makes the biggest cup of chicken noodle soup you'll ever see.

"Let's all go there and have some fun, and rest up some. I think you'd really like it there... Don't you really like chicken noodle soup, when carrots are cut in the shape of oyster crackers and put into it? Well, they have that there, so..."

"I'd like that, Noctis. I'd like that a lot," Luna said, nodding her head against him—so that her hair tickled his face, but Noctis didn't mind. "We've done more than enough for now. You got two Royal Arms for the price of one recently. And I have now had two Covenants done with Shiva—which must mean that when she finally thinks it's time for you... you'll get exponential power.

"The world can wait for a day. Let us go, Noctis Caelum." (3)

 **Author's Note: (1) That's something Robert Pattinson said once—that if you don't wash your hair enough for a long time, it sort of ends up washing it himself… I don't believe that at all, but I guess Luna does here;)**

 **(2) As awful as it might seem that Noctis and Luna tried to French Kiss each other when they were kids… I don't think it's that bad? At least it's not to me? Because I, as a child, tried to French Kiss someone. Mainly because I had just heard that term for the first time, and was like: "What's that?" And a kid my age said that they could show me, because it wasn't something they could really explain—so we tried to French Kiss… And stopped the moment I began coughing with their tongue going down my throat. Yeah… But though this probably doesn't SOUND innocent at ALL. It actually was. Because we were too old to know ANYTHING about sexual stuff. And the person really was just trying to help me out. XD**

 **(3) Notice that Luna called Noctis by his name without the "Light" bit of it here. I wonder what that could mean. *cough* It means she's beginning to care less about his destiny of bringing the light back and wants him to live, if at all possible. *cough***

 **I'm not too happy about the part where Noctis and Ignis are somewhat arguing. I completely lost where I had written that before, and had to rewrite it, but I liked the old version better. It was more civil and stuff. But oh well, I guess:(**

 **Also, originally this chapter was supposed to have much more happen in it, but it just ended up being too long. So I split it in two, so I could update sooner.**

 **Hope you all enjoyed. See you next time!**

 **-Shanna**


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